And To See Him Smile Chapter One
by Myranda Kalis
Summary: Before RG Veda, there was a war that decided the rulership of heaven, and two gods whose lives collided in the midst of it.
1. Default Chapter

And To See Him Smile  
  
A RG Veda Story  
  
by  
  
Myranda Kalis  
  
  
  
"Have I mentioned recently exactly how much I hate all this courtly,"   
Taishakuten paused, searching for something that resembled a polite term,   
and finally went on without it, "dung?"  
  
"Yes, my lord," the elderly body servant fussing with the precise   
drape of his cloak replied serenely, "About two or three hundred times a   
day, now."  
  
The Raijin threw a look over his shoulder that would have thoroughly   
cowed a lesser being; the ancient servant merely raised his eyebrows in   
the sort of remonstrative gesture bestowed on gritsy three-year-olds.   
Taishakuten didn't miss the significance and subsided into what he sincerely   
hoped wasn't a petulant silence. The old man finished his ministrations,   
adjusting the trailing ends of his cloud-grey cloak into an aesthetically pleasing configuration, poking, prodding, shifting, straightening, and generally guiding   
the court armor and clothing Taishakuten suffered to wear away from   
comfortable and into presentable. With a satisfied sound, he presented a   
mirror and the Raijin--God of Thunder, General of the armies of Heaven,   
whose name was feared, and cursed, by all the tribes of Mazoku--regarded   
himself with little amusement.   
  
"I look like a silvered carrot."  
  
"You look magnificent--you will slay all the maidens with your   
charms and will carry away the princess of some clan across your   
saddlebow," the old man's eyes glittered with some humor, "Or, failing that,   
you will at least not look like a fool."  
  
"That's your opinion."   
  
"Taishakuten!"  
  
"I have to get it out now, or I will barely manage to be polite before  
Tentai and the entire Heavenly Court," Taishakuten managed between clenched   
teeth, "And even I know there are worse things than failing to present a   
pleasing image. Burning sky, but I hate court events!"  
  
The rising winds rattled the walls of the tent and Taishakuten drew a  
deep breath, slowly unknotting his hands from the clench they had   
unconsciously crept into. The servant bowed deeply in acknowledgment of   
both the logic and the Raijin's knowledge of his own character, turning   
and parting the curtain that divided the pavilion into its two sections. His   
departure left Taishakuten more or less alone, which was a state he always   
sought just before events such at this, and which he was rarely allowed   
to attain.  
  
Court. A shudder rippled through Taishakuten's muscular frame.   
Give him a horde of demons--they could be dealt with in a manner more to   
his own liking. Courtiers, on the other hand.....Very quietly, and very   
precisely, the general cursed the Tentei, the entire Heavenly Court, and   
himself in each of the languages he knew. The Tentei, for summoning him   
to Zenmi-jou to be honored at the Summer Court for his skill and success   
in beating back the Mazuko tribes that constantly threatened the fragile   
borders of Tenkai, the Heavenly Court, for its mere existence as an artifact   
of government, and himself, for actually being persuaded that making an   
appearance was a good idea rather than pleading weariness for a winter of   
constant battles and a spring of laying the dead to rest.  
  
The messenger from Zenmi-jou had arrived at Taishakuten's northern   
headquarters at the same time as the warm breezes from the south began   
taking their precedence, and the rains stopped carrying the chill of snow and   
the wind no longer tasted of ice, and of death in cold places in the mountains.   
It mattered little to the Raijin that the Mazuko dead had out-numbered his   
own, it was death nonetheless and the mountains of the northern kekkai had   
drunk the blood of legions; the valleys and forested glens were rich with the   
gift of the fallen. It had not been a quick or clean campaign, nor a warm winter,   
and even he had not been certain of success, even with the forces of Ryuu-ou   
pressing the attack in the west; not until the last battle, when the warlord of   
this particular tribe had gone down beneath his sword and their resistance   
had broken, had he been certain any of them would leave the north alive. The   
mopping up that had followed was, truth to be told, still going on under the   
command of his very capable field second, and involved digging guerilla bands   
of Mazoku raiders out of their strongholds in the mountains and putting them,   
quickly and cleanly, to the sword. He had ridden in from one such expedition   
shortly after sunset, splattered in mud and blood and so tired it was as if he   
had never known sleep, to find an overdressed and perfumed courtier sitting uncomfortably in the staff room of his pavilion with a politely worded   
command to present himself at Zenmi-jou to be honored for the successful   
completion of the northern campaign...and, of course, the delectation of the   
Heavenly Court. Taishakuten could only imagine the sort of word that had   
preceded him south, in the mouth of the courtly messenger who had stared at   
him with the sort of horror common in those whose weapons were for   
decoration when faced with one whose sword was still flecked with the blood   
of demons. He was not looking forward to this with the anticipation of any   
pleasure at all.  
  
If he had never been to court before, if he retained any romantic   
notions about the nature of the Heavenly Minions that circled around the   
Emperor's throne like scavenger birds, it might have been different. But he   
had, in fact, seen them for what they were, and they, no doubt, knew him for   
what he was, and Taishakuten seriously doubted that there would ever be   
anything like comfort, or peace, between them. The Emperor's toys were born   
high into their respective clans, they held place and title by the privilege of  
their birth; blood of a different kind had assured them of their futures, the   
lands they would administer, the lives they would lead, the comfort they would   
enjoy. The Raijin, granted his title and his responsibility by the ambition that   
drove him and the strength that he carried with him, had not been born of a   
noble house or clan, had no parent to assure his passage into the realms of   
power, no family name to cement his claims, and no purity of blood to   
display his legitimacy as a powerful man within the world of the court. He   
had risen, through skill and effort, had paid the price of his success in blood-  
his own, his enemies'--and had earned what he held. And it was at moments   
like this, surrounded by the hand-picked honor guard that had accompanied   
him to the capital, who were themselves surrounded by the camps and honor   
guards of other generals, of nobles who had arrived to take place in the hills   
around the great lake that cradled Zenmi-jou, that he most felt the need to   
remind himself of that.  
  
His head rose slightly, taking on its accustomed damnably arrogant   
posture, his lips curving back in a smile that held its usual trace of   
contemptuous amusement. His silver eyes became mirrors that reflected,   
and showed nothing of what passed within him, and, with a purposeful   
stride that spoke of perfect confidence, he glided from his pavilion to do   
battle.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Silvery laughter carried up from the inner garden of Zenmi-jou and   
stopped Ashura-ou where he walked in the gallery overlooking it. The   
sound was contagious, and the Guardian of Tenkai felt an amused noise   
working its way up his throat as he stole on soundless feet through the   
forest of fluted columns that supported the gallery and gazed down over the   
low wall that protected the unsuspecting from walking off the edge and   
taking a highly unpleasant fall. Below, amid lushly flowering jordanairres   
and expanses of perfectly manicured lawn, the young son of Yasha-ou and   
the equally young daughter of Karura-ou were playing a game that involved   
a small ball and a good deal of rolling, tumbling, and wrestling in what   
were no doubt extremely expensive court costumes. The little Princess   
of the Karuras, Ashura-ou noted with some amusement, was giving as   
good as she got and, as he watched, little Yama took a tumble that landed   
him in one of the lily ponds scattered about like wet traps for the young and   
the unwary. He turned away quickly, before his laughter could betray him,   
and was betrayed by another laugh anyway. A pair of alarmed exclamations   
from the garden below drew his attention further down the wall, where   
Ryuu-ou leaned on the divide and called down to the children.  
  
"You two better find your parents and clean up--the procession will   
be starting soon!" Her voice, more commonly heard barking drill commands   
across the parade field, was sweet and dark and elicited the same instant   
obedience from the children below as it did from the troops she trained. A   
pair of sweet voices replied in affirmation, followed by the sound of   
running footsteps; Ashura-ou watched them flee, his lips curving in the   
softest and faintest of smiles.  
  
Ryuu-ou saw the expression and matched it before he could hide it   
again, her vivid blue-green eyes glittering in her elfin face, her expression   
absolutely pixieish. "Be careful, Ashura-ou, your face may crack." Her   
voice held the gentle, teasing tone that only she could use with impunity.   
"Or else the matchmakers may assume that your smile was for me and not   
for the children, and rumor will have us married before the end of Court."  
  
"Rumor already has us married, committing adultery, and engaging   
in all varieties of debauchery with or without one anothers' consent, my   
sweet Nagaina," His smile curled slightly wider at the blush the familiar use   
of her childhood name always evoked, "My smiles alone cannot possibly   
intrigue them more than my failure to smile."  
  
"Ashura!" Ryuu-ou's hands plastered to her cheeks in an effort to   
keep her fair complexion from showing her embarrassment so visibly, "You   
are completely awful, you know--the least you could do is deny it once or   
twice and give me the illusion of chastity to present to a future husband!"  
  
"Well, you are at least now admitting you will marry--at some future   
point," He added, tone dripping amusement at the flash of fire in her eyes   
and the defiant toss of her head.  
  
"In the far distant future! You'd think the heavens will fall if I fail   
to gratify the court's urge for a wedding--immediately!" She rolled her eyes   
toward the perfect blue arch of the sky, untroubled by cloud or wind. "I   
notice," she added, drilling her finger into the breastplate of his ceremonial   
armor, "that they do not harass you about it with quite the same...persistence."  
  
"That is because, with me, persistence is not rewarded with your   
lovely flashing eyes--or a maidenly blush," Ashura-ou captured her hand   
and turned it, lowering his forehead to the back of her wrist with the utmost   
respect and gravity, golden eyes glittering teasingly.  
  
"Oh, they are all afraid that you'll lose your temper and toast them   
black," Ryuu-ou snatched her hand back and refused to blush again.  
  
"Exactly," Ashura-ou replied with perfect serenity, "My Lady Ryuu-ou,   
I would be honored if you would allow my humble self to escort you into the   
presence of our Lord and Emperor."  
  
"Humble!" Ryuu-ou's laugh trilled again, but she gave Ashura-ou her   
arm. "I can hardly wait to see what the gossips make of this. In fact, I   
wonder what they will make of the fact that you failed to hide in Ashura-jou   
until the last possible moment to make a polite appearance."  
  
"They cannot possibly be further from the truth than they already   
are, Ryuu-ou--I no longer even bother to speculate." The smile vanished as   
they progressed deeper into the royal palace, the mask of cool invulnerability   
that he always wore in the presence of the Heavenly Court slipping over his   
impossibly handsome face as Ryuu-ou watched. As always, the transformation simultaneously unnerved and irritated her--unnerved, because even she, who   
knew him so well, felt she did not know him at all in moments such as this,   
and irritated, because he felt he needed to adopt such a posture in her presence.   
Not that, she was forced to admit, upbraiding him about it actually did any   
good--he simply gave her the charming expression that had melted stonier   
hearts than hers and she promptly forgot why she was so angry at him...until   
the next time he did it.  
  
Even she, inured against it by years of strenuous denial, was forced to   
admit they made an eye-catching pair as they made their way through the halls   
of the palace, currently filled almost to the rafters with nobles of all degrees,   
dignitaries of every imaginable variety, ambassadors, entertainers, casual   
onlookers, and the rest of the rabble that gathered whenever the Heavenly   
Court was called into the capital. He, tall and elegant in gold and white and   
deepest black, dark hair falling to his shoulders like a spill of satin that only   
partially disguised his delicately canted ears and particularly emphasized the   
brilliant gold of his eyes; she, slightly smaller and more slenderly built, short-  
cropped red hair a perfect complement to aquamarine eyes, body sheathed   
in gleaming dragon scale armor. The characteristics of the clans Ashura   
and Ryuu functioned in such perfect opposition and complete harmony that   
many wondered how they could even be friends, they were so different, and   
yet the differences were the fundament of their relationship. She was quick   
and fierce and fiery; he was deliberate and controlled and coolly even-tempered.   
Her anger flashed like a stroke of lightning, and then vanished like the same,   
leaving little damage behind and only the memory of the thunder; his rage   
was so cold it burned, and left scars, even in those it barely touched. Her   
impulses were his deliberately calculated moves; his dispassionate heart was   
her heart of fire. She was the only person in the Tenkai who could publicly   
upbraid him for any reason without incurring a taste of his wrath; he was the   
only person in the Tenkai who could call her by her given name and tease   
her mercilessly without the conversation ending in a swordplay. Their   
friendship was founded in their ability to transgress each others' boundaries   
with greater or lesser degrees of impunity. Their relationship was also the   
stuff of annoying courtly drama, since every matchmaker, malicious gossip,   
and rumormonger in the Heavenly Court had an opinion on them, particularly   
with regards to their mutually lacking state of matrimonial bliss and whether   
or not they would end that state any time in the immediate future. The favored   
outcome among the hopelessly romantic was, of course, that they would   
discover some previously unsuspected wild passion for one another, and fall   
into one anothers' arms as a matter of course.  
  
It would, in the estimation of both, happen shortly after the hells froze   
over solidly, for Ryuu-ou was opposed to the institution of marriage as a   
matter of principle and Ashura-ou was contemplating granting another the   
supreme honor of dragging him to the altar. It was an excellent time for it,   
as, in the anticipation of all, peace may very well have been won for their time.   
  
Years of careful planning had come to fruition in the western and   
northern campaigns of the summer, autumn, and winter past--the executors   
of those plans were to be honored for their part in driving back, hopefully for   
another full generation, the Mazuko tribes with whom they cohabited in less   
than neighborly fashion. The plans had been Ashura-ou's; the execution had   
been entrusted to the armies under the command of the bushinshou and the   
shitennou, for Ashura-ou's own place was at the side of the Emperor, and   
whose blade was raised only in his defense. Many had distinguished   
themselves in the service of the Emperor, and they had been called to   
Zenmi-jou to be honored for that service; Ryuu-ou was herself one, and   
another the Raijin Taishakuten.  
  
"Taishakuten?" Ashura-ou's questioning tone drew her out of her   
contemplations, and she glanced at him as they entered the long gallery   
that led to the inner chambers of the palace, and the throne room itself.  
  
"What of him?" A tiny thrill of unease traveled up her spine, as it   
always did, at the sound of that name.  
  
"You murmured his name aloud, Ryuu-ou--has he been much in   
your thoughts?" His tone, though a questioning one, was otherwise entirely   
neutral, as was his face, his golden eyes a mirror; she wondered, for an instant,   
what he was thinking.  
  
"Don't you start, too--the Raijin's bachelorhood has been widely   
commented on among the officers of my army...as has his excellent beauty,   
which vies with his arrogance for his most striking attribute." Ryuu-ou   
snorted in a completely uncourtly fashion. "It's lucky that I know all my men   
are loyal to me personally or I might feel threatened by the force of that   
man's charisma."  
  
"I must admit, I have heard a great deal of him but know very little   
about him." Ashura-ou's tone made that slightly less a statement of ignorance   
than a declaration of his intention to learn more. "You have served with him?"  
  
"I have had that...honor. Before our forces split, and he went in   
pursuit of our enemies' northbound army." A small shudder traveled through   
her as she remembered--it had been a dark time, and even Ashura's tactical   
acumen had been pressed to its limits, when faced with an enemy that   
outnumbered them almost ten-to-one.  
  
"What did you think of him?" Again, that neutral questioning, and   
Ryuu-ou would have given a casket of her finest pearls to know what was   
going on inside Ashura's mind as he asked it.  
  
"I thought then, and I still think now, that something is eating at him-  
devouring him from within." She paused, and searched for the correct words   
to phrase her intuition. "He seems...driven. Dangerously so. I suspect that,   
lacking a family and a clan to give him position, he has been hardened in   
ways that you or I have not been--we are both warriors, but we were also   
the heirs of our fathers, and given all that we needed from birth to fulfill   
our obligations to this position. Taishakuten fought his way into the   
position he now occupies, and I expect that before he came to it, he had   
more than his fair share of being pushed back down--ungently."  
  
"I am told that he is arrogant enough to be a High King in his own   
right," Ashura-ou glanced at her as a soft laugh escaped her lips.  
  
"Oh, he is that--arrogant. He carries himself as though he already   
wears a crown, and leads a clan that bears his name. But only in certain   
company." A wry smile curled her lips. "Most of my general staff, for example.   
You could have pasted feathers to him and called him a game cock the first   
time he met them--I was ready to make a bet on who would draw first, him   
or General Shinjousho!"  
  
"Who did?" Wryly.  
  
"Neither. They eventually settled down and behaved themselves quite   
nicely once I brought out the battle plans. When he is not armoring himself   
in that attitude, Taishakuten is almost rather bearable--he is no fool, and did   
not gain his rank for no better reason than flattering the right egos at the right   
time...not that I think he has it in him to actually stroke anyone's ego even if it   
would gain him any favor. He is very proud, and very confident, and very,   
very bitter." She paused. "I think he may bear watching in the future,   
Ashura-ou, for I could not swear that he does not covet your position, as the   
first warrior of Tenkai."  
  
"We will deal with that when it comes--if it comes." Ashura-ou   
stopped within sight of the throne room doors, and turned to face her, the   
court mask flickering away from his eyes and allowing her a brief glimpse   
within. "I have not yet thanked you, Nagaina, for coming home safely. I   
would have missed you horribly had some misfortune of battle befallen you,   
and I was left alone at this court without some bastion of sanity."  
  
A smile of genuine pleasure came to Ryuu-ou's lips. "You should   
know by now, Ashura, that it will take far more than ten-to-one odds and the   
arrogance of hungry young thunder gods to keep me from coming back here   
to harass you on a regular basis. But I thank you...for it is good to know that   
the greatest warrior of the heavenly realm personally intercedes with the   
fortunes of battle for my safety!"  
  
As they crossed the threshold of the throne room and into the   
presence of Tentei, Ryuu-ou murmured softly, trying to sound uncurious,   
"So...tell me...who do you plan to marry?"  
  
*******************************************************  
  
Ashura-ou gazed out over the assembled court with such complete   
serenity, such an air of cool dignity, that even the royal rumormongers who  
made their lives analyzing his every change of posture and expression could   
have said that there was anything wrong with him. He stood to the Emperor's   
right, as was proper for the first defender of the imperial person, and the   
Guardian of the Realm; opposite him, Kisshouten, Tentei's daughter and   
the future Empress, watched the spectacle with visible pleasure, her beauty   
and grace perfect, in all the things the child of the proudest clan in the   
Tenkai. Around them, the four shitennou of the Heavenly Court occupied   
the four cardinal points of the compass--Ryuu-ou in the west, Yasha-ou in   
the north, Karura-ou in the south, and Kendappa-ou in the east. In their center,   
of course, Tentei himself lounged in his throne, resplendent in the robes of his   
office and making witty comments that caused his lovely daughter to grace   
them all with her pure laughter and, thankfully, lifting the burden of   
conversation almost entirely off Ashura-ou's shoulders.  
  
The gods, but I hate court functions. The thought finally articulated   
itself through the exhausted haze his mind was swimming in, and Ashura barely   
managed to keep from smiling at the momentary relief it gave him to admit it,   
if only to himself. The assembly of the Heavenly Court and these displays of   
very obvious power and largesse were an exotic form of torture even when he   
was feeling perfectly at his ease, with nothing at all to trouble him; with   
broken sleep and visions that never fully went away hanging before his eyes,   
it was even worse. Only the fact that he had long ago learned how to lock   
every muscle in place without appearing stiff or tense kept him in that perfect   
posture; otherwise, his shoulders might have slumped under the weariness   
pressing down on him, and the flawlessness he was noted for would have   
been something less than...perfect.   
  
He lowered his lashes for a moment as a vision swam briefly before   
his golden eyes; the picture he presented was one of respectful contemplation   
of the lords and generals arranged before them. It refused to focus, to   
cohere enough to be clearly seen, and a sharp pain lanced through his   
temples as it dissipated back into the oracular trance from which it had   
emerged. They were coming often now, more and more painfully, and   
each one added to his own dark certainty....  
  
He sensed, rather than saw, Ryuu-ou tense at his side; she had   
never acquired much of a courtly mask, and little was required to make her   
cast what she did possess aside. He lifted his eyes to take in fully the   
entourage offering its obeisance to the Emperor and the assembled court.  
  
"Raijin Taishakuten," Ryuu-ou spoke in an undertone, for his benefit,   
and ignorant of the knowledge that Ashura-ou knew the Raijin's face and   
form well, though they had never before met.  
  
He was, Ashura-ou thought with supreme dispassion, even more   
beautiful than his own visions had led him to think. The Raijin was tall,   
taller than himself by several inches, wider across the chest and shoulders,   
and more visibly powerful of build. Corded muscle covered by pale skin   
rippled beneath the presentational clothing he wore--clothing that pulled   
taut at every smoothly polished motion, and revealed his power rather   
than concealed it. Silver hair cascaded unbound to his waist, stirring   
almost in a nonexistent breeze; his colors were all the same shades, storm  
cloud grey, snow silver, lightning white. His six companions--the entourage   
that he had traveled to Zenmi-jou with--were all dressed similarly and all   
followed his lead in nearly everything. He seemed to shimmer slightly   
in the indirect light of the throne room as he held his bow, waiting for   
Tentei's acknowledgment before he rose, but Ashura-ou could still see   
precisely what Ryuu-ou had meant: the gesture of honorable submission   
did not suit him at all. He might be of humble birth, but there was   
nothing common within him; there stood a god, born to rule.  
  
He heard the Emperor speak as though from a great distance,   
acknowledging Taishakuten's obeisance and bidding him rise. The Raijin   
did so, straightening to his full, commanding height, his head settling at an   
angle distinctly contrary to his submissiveness of the moment before,   
stormlight-silver eyes flickering over the faces of the assembled court as   
he inclined his head in greeting--the gesture of equals to one another.   
  
Ashura-ou suppressed a smile at the distinctly displeased rumble that   
came from the direction of Kendappa-ou's warrior husband; Jikokuten did   
not appreciate elegant displays of arrogance, particularly when his wife was   
one of the recipients of them. He heard Taishakuten speaking and, though he   
had avoided it, and knew he must continue to do so for the sake of his own   
sanity, he allowed his eyes to be drawn to the Raijin's face.  
  
It was a mistake. Oh, it was a mistake, and he knew it immediately.  
Taishakuten's gaze touched his own, and the instant it did, he could no longer   
look away. He no longer had any desire to look away. All the shades of   
cloud rippled in his eyes, pale silver-grey and flickering with the light of the   
storm, the glitter of lightning. They held him without even trying, for he   
knew that Taishakuten was looking at him now, as trapped as he and as   
unable to turn aside. A strange expression was coming into them, a true   
expression, for, unlike Ryuu-ou, the Raijin knew how to hide himself   
from the eyes of others, and what Ashura-ou was seeing know had not be   
meant for any sort of public revelation. Longing. Need. Hunger.   
Ashura-ou stared helplessly into the eyes of the man he knew would be   
both his lover and his death, and for the briefest of moments knew complete   
peace.  
  
It required an almost physical effort to avert his eyes, wrenching   
his gaze away from Taishakuten's with a publicly acceptable lowering of   
his lashes, though the rest of his body remained perfectly still. The   
connection snapped, the brief peace he had felt fled, and it took all of his   
will and centuries of training to keep from reacting visibly to its loss. It  
could not have lasted for more than a moment, and still his soul could not   
have been more deeply touched, more utterly shaken, and he silently longed   
for the peace and stillness of Ashura-jou in which to regain his mental balance,   
restore himself to the perfect calm that he projected and had never felt less.  
  
***************************************************  
  
The wait had been interminable, and it was only the first of many   
annoyances which Taishakuten was confronted with, though, by far, the   
easiest to endure. The basic truism of military life was that, for the majority   
of the time, it was usually a case of hurrying up in order to wait; it was   
simply easier to endure the waiting if the end result was watching a well-  
planned action unfold to magnificent effect. Having to wait to be ushered   
into the presence of Tentei and the rest of the Heavenly Court because of   
the inevitable vicissitudes of court politics was simply an annoying variation   
on the theme. Taishakuten made up his mind to wait patiently, because no   
one expected him to, and surprised everyone in his immediate vicinity by   
making pleasant and well-informed conversation will all who addressed him   
and displaying more charm than he'd cared to for as long as he'd held any   
sort of rank. It was, he thought with a certain wry humor, better than fuming,   
and almost as amusing as watching the three junior officers he had brought   
with him gawk at the splendor of Zenmi-jou, and the other three, slightly   
more experienced, make self-deprecating comments to the pretty girls they   
were attempting to woo. If nothing else, everything they experienced here   
would teach them something about the nature of court and its politics, and   
he doubted they would actually get into serious trouble...though they might   
never recover from the attentions of the capital's particularly fine breed of   
courtesans, and would be ruined for life for lesser whores. A faintly wistful   
smile crawled onto Taishakuten's face as he remembered his own first visit   
to Zenmi-jou as a very junior officer....  
  
...And his only real reason for wanting to return now, though nothing   
could have made him betray that to the courtiers he waited out the inevitable   
delays with. Politics, he told himself firmly, and almost believed it, for the   
high ranks of the Tenkai's military were nearly as politicized as the circle of   
its noble families; if he wished to rise higher, he needed to cultivate the good   
will of the Emperor and the Court. The fact that he was a ranking member   
of the Court was only a secondary consideration at best. Taishakuten had   
been telling himself that for years, and listening diligently to the advice of   
the old attendant who had come to his service when he was granted the office   
of Raijin--the advice that, if he never spoke of it, then the man he constructed   
in his own mind would never be able to match the reality, and he would be   
doomed to inevitable disappointment in what he found.  
  
Ashura-ou. His throat tightened slightly at the mere thought, and   
the realization that neither time, nor his diligent attempts to forget, had   
dimmed the memory of him, the single sight he had had of the young lord   
of the Ashura clan, recently come to his throne, hundreds of years previously.   
Of course, if he had been serious about forgetting it, he would have resigned   
his commission and pursued some course that would not have required him   
to read dispatches and orders written in Ashura-ou's fine hand and sealed   
with the arms of his clan, nor have casually pumped Ryuu-ou for all the   
information she was worth while on campaign with her in the west. He   
would not be woken by dreams that he would actually struggle to recall in   
every detail. And he most certainly would not have come to Zenmi-jou   
again, no matter how polite the command had been, he acknowledged to   
himself.  
  
The procession had begun moving again, almost without him noticing   
it, and he quietly blessed the advantage of his height. He caught a glimpse   
of gold-and-white, and then a flash of fiery hair and liquid blue-green.   
Taishakuten repressed a reflexive smile--Ryuu-ou, in her place at Ashura-ou's   
back, one of the few who deserved the honor of guarding it. He had been   
forced to revise his opinion of noble-officers somewhat after meeting her, for   
the woman was all things he appreciated in both allies and adversaries: fierce,   
canny, quick and accurate in her judgements, and just hot-headed enough to   
take a risk and make it show positive results. The fact that she probably didn't   
trust him as far as she could have thrown him simply meant she was wiser   
than she was reputed to be in most cases; her reputation for impulsiveness   
often masked her very real intuition--of things that could not be logically   
explained, only experienced. Her aquamarine eyes found him, and her   
posture changed slightly, a tensing across the shoulders, her hands uncurling   
from their loose clench. She was, he noted with some amusement, ready   
to vault the railing and draw at the slightest provocation, her body language   
speaking protectiveness--though of whom, he didn't guess until he saw her   
lips moving, forming his name. Speaking to the man who stood in front,   
and slightly to the right, of her. Then Taishakuten himself was before the   
throne and offering his homage to the Emperor, the Shitennou, and his   
favorites, in that order, his lips automatically forming the courtly phrases   
of polite conversation, while his eyes struggled to rest anywhere but on   
the one he had come to see, heart suddenly pounding. In fear. And need.  
  
He felt the delicate pressure of eyes upon him and, though he struggled   
against the need to do it, he looked up and into them. They were the warm   
golden of sunset over the northern mountains, and yet they were not themselves   
warm in expression; they glittered, almost feverishly, and defeated all attempts   
to look too deeply into them. And yet he could not look away. They were set   
deeply in a face of impossible beauty, of transcendent elegance and grace, but   
they were all he noticed, all he could see. Fire flickered in the light of their   
depths, and drew him in like wind into a conflagration, heat rushing through   
his body from the contact, and, for an instant, he forgot entirely how to   
breathe, how to think, how to do anything other than hold, and be held by,   
those glorious golden eyes. Drowning in their beauty, and the promise of   
peace he felt written there but could not see.  
  
Ashura-ou glanced down, releasing him, the motion hidden as his long,   
thick lashes veiled his sunlit eyes, and Taishakuten almost reeled on his feet-  
the loss was almost physical, and almost physically painful, shockingly intense.   
He heard, as though from a great distance, Tentei, offering him the reward   
of his choosing.  
  
He suddenly knew exactly what it would be. 


	2. And To See Him Smile Chapter 2

AND TO SEE HIM SMILE  
  
PART II  
  
A RG Veda Story  
  
  
  
"I am going to kill him." Ryuu-ou announced finally, coming to a halt in mid-pace, sea-green cloak swirling around her athletic legs, her eyes taking on a distinctly cold glint of steelly determination.  
  
"Ryuu-ou," Ashura-ou began, and was cut off by an involuntary wince as the healer tending to his rather minor wound pressed a bit more enthusiastically than was strictly necessary under the Western Queen's glare.  
  
"Don't say it!" The ferocity in her voice actually succeeded in rendering Ashura mostly speechless--for a few seconds, at least. "Do not say it. I am not overreacting--"  
  
"Ryuu--"  
  
"The rest of the court may be laboring under the delusion that you let him land a blow--but you can't fool me with that, Ashura, we trained with the same swordmaster!" Her color was rising so fiercely her cheeks were nearly as red as her hair, her eyes overbright with fury.  
  
"Naga--"  
  
"I can't believe you even accepted that--that--thunder-twit's--"  
  
"Nagaina." His quiet voice finally managed to penetrate her boundless fury and reach the part of her that still actually listened to him occasionally. "It is nothing. I am hardly injured..."  
  
"Ashura, that is not the point. He shouldn't have been able to so much as scratch you!" Ryuu-ou's eyes flashed one last time before settling into an aquamarine smolder. "What if the blade had been poisoned? What if he had come here to kill you?!"  
  
"But it was not--and he did not...come here to kill me." Ashura-ou's mouth was suddenly dry as he met Ryuu-ou's eyes, his throat working for an instant without sound. Yet. Not yet.  
  
"You were distracted." Her tone was matter-of-fact, her looking-for-an- explanation tone that inevitably retrieved an answer, even when there was no question asked.  
  
"I was." Ashura-ou allowed as the healer gathered his medicines and departed as silently and efficiently as he had arrived.  
  
Ryuu-ou's eyes softened slightly, some of the rage draining from them as she gazed at length into his own, and he knew she was reading the weariness in them, the strain about them. "Did you...See something?" She asked delicately, reaching out to rest a callused hand on his cheek, wonderfully cool and soothing against the near-fever of his own flesh. It also served to hold his head up, to keep his eyes upon her so that she could read his gaze. Ryuu-ou was more sensitive--and more subtle--than some gave her credit for.  
  
"I did." His throat was still dry, and it gave him an unusual huskiness as he spoke, stopping abruptly before he said more than he wished. If only, Nagaina. If only. But you will never have a cold enough heart--this is a secret I cannot share, even with you.  
  
Ryuu-ou nodded slowly, letting the subject go, her free hand resting on his other cheek and holding his face a soothing cradle for a long moment, his eyes closing for a moment and relieving their exhaustion. "You haven't been sleeping well, I think. No, don't bother to deny it, Ashura--I know you too well, and know also that you could fall asleep on your feet at court without anyone else noticing. You feel fevered." The back of one hand rested on his forehead. "Very well. I will submit to the fact of your distraction today. I will even refrain from puncturing Taishakuten's more important organs."  
  
"And the ones of lesser importance?" Ashura managed to ask wryly, an expression that was not quite a smile flickering across his lips.  
  
"Am I not to have any fun?" Ryuu-ou asked lightly, and bent to press a sisterly kiss to his cheek. "Find your bed, my brother. Close your eyes and let no visions trouble you for a time. You need your rest."  
  
"If I could prevent them from coming, Nagaina, I would in a moment." He heard, for an instant, the bottomless fatigue in his own voice.  
  
"I know." She said quietly.  
  
**************************************************************************** *  
  
Ryuu-ou left Ashura-jou in a substantially more thoughtful mood than she had been in when she entered--which wasn't difficult, given the circumstances. She had enjoyed, in rapid succession, the unusual emotions of shock, horror, and fear, beginning with Taishakuten's outrageous challenge to Ashura-ou, Ashura-ou's equally outrageous acceptance of said challenge, and the course of the fight, in which she saw far more than most of the rest of the observers. Unlike many, she had not been functioning under any illusions concerning Taishakuten's skill with weapons, or the man's tactical ability, both of which were superb, and an able complement to--or rival for--Ashura-ou's own. Her heart had nearly stopped when Ashura had brought forth Shuratou, and it lept into her throat when Taishakuten's lightning-wreathed blade had met it stroke for stroke. The blow that had actually injured Ashura-ou had occurred so quickly that even she had barely seen the strike, for Taishakuten was as fast as he was strong, and Ashura-ou had not initially reacted to it. Ryuu-ou had almost doubted that he had seen the Raijin's strike himself, and now she knew that he in fact had not....had been, for the briefest of instants, looking upon something that no one else in the court had been privy to, and it had been strong enough to distract him in the midst of battle. A "friendly" battle, but a battle nonetheless.  
  
She sucked her lower lip back, working it with her teeth in a gesture that a long succession of servants had attempted to train out of her, the only sure sign of the depth of her concern. When they were children, Ashura would tease her that her face would freeze that way, his golden eyes sparkling with pure mirth, his wicked smile throwing his fey beauty into sharp relief. Oh, he had been beautiful even then, as fair as she had felt herself plain when next to him, and together they'd committed acts of childish sabotage to the dignity of both their houses, falling out of trees and into ponds and from one adventure to the next and no little amount of trouble. The heir to the sword of Ashura had been a hellion full of fire, as well as plots and schemes and plans, the definite ringleader and she his willing follower and faithful knight-defender. She could even pinpoint, in her mind, the precise moment when he had begun to change, the terrible night that her father had come into their rooms, wearing his armor and bearing his sword, to tell them that Ashura's parents were dead and they must return to Zenmi-jou at once. Ashura had ridden the entire way wrapped in shocked, disbelieving silence; he had not wept, nor made a sound, and her young heart had broken for him, and she had cried all the tears that he did not shed. He had descended into Ashura-jou as the boy she knew so well that he was nearly her brother--and he had emerged Ashura-ou, bearing Shuratou and the responsibility of protecting both the body of the Tentei and the lives of all who dwelt within the Heavenly Realm. Whatever he had seen there, whatever he had learned in the chamber where his father's body had lain in state, had mortally wounded some deep part of him, and she had watched helplessly as he withdrew further into himself as the years passed. There were places in him that the rest of the court barely suspected, satisfied with his perfect surface, and the elegant masquerade he carried out for them.  
  
Ryuu-ou could not remember the last time she had seen him grace anyone but herself with a true smile--an expression of pleasure, of joy, rather than one of his more pleasing masks.  
  
She could not remember the last time she had heard him laugh, or show some sign that his heart was not dead within him.  
  
But today....today, she had seen it. She had seen it in his eyes, gazing past the illusion of space and time that had not encumbered him since the day he had taken Ashura-jou for his own, and inherited all the power of his father, and his clan. She saw his eyes smiling as Taishakuten cut him, saw a flare of emotion in them that was neither pain nor anger, and had seen it directed at the Raijin, vision or not.  
  
Oh, little brother, if you knew what your eyes were saying....  
  
**************************************************************************** * 


	3. And To See Him Smile Chapter 3

And To See Him Smile  
  
Part III  
  
A RG Veda Story  
  
By  
  
Myranda Kalis  
  
  
  
The air was hot, hotter than the heart of a furnace, searing against his skin and scorching his lungs with every breath he drew. Burning winds stirred his hair, tugged at his robes, sent swirls of ash cascading over him as he pressed his face into his hands and begged not to have to see this again, prayed for this vision to leave him in peace.  
  
Ashura-ou raised his head and opened firelit eyes, reddened, he told himself, from the unrelenting heat, from the jet-black ash carried by the scorched wind. If there were truly any mercy in heaven, he could have commanded his own awakening, dragged himself from this seeing, and lost himself in dreamless sleep and let his spirit find some peace. But mercy was a quality that had never graced his clan, in any form, and so he stood on the spur of black-burned rock overlooking what had once been the lake that cradled Zenmi-jou, and now cradled its not-so-faithful shadow, risen in its place. Heat distortion rippled over the surface of the lake, the blood of countless numbers reddening the waters, that it seemed like Ashura- jou floated, untouched, in the midst of a world that consisted entirely of blood and fire. The sky, what little of it could be seen through the clouds of unnatural blackness that swirled through it, was the same lurid crimson as the lake of blood, as the flames that flickered unceasingly in maddened patterns across lake's surface, and writhed over the walls and towers of Ashura-jou.  
  
Please.not this.. The words emerged, half-prayer, half-plea, as less than a whisper, snatched from his lips by the relentless winds and carried, unheard by any living thing, across the bowl of the valley. Anything but this.  
  
He moved, the action prompted not by any conscious desire, but by the terrible knowledge of his part in this vision, where he must go, what he must witness, whom he must meet, and why, why he needed to do it. He bent his face against the wind and slowly descended the burnt hillside, charred grass, blackened earth, the bodies of those unfortunate enough to be caught in the path of the firestorm that had seared Zenmi-jou clean of life crumbling as he passed over and by them. The well-tended floating paths that had connected the Heavenly City to the shores of its watery cradle had been burned away along with the waters themselves, leaving the crumbled remains of pilings to pick his way across. The burnt-copper smell of blood hung so thickly in the air he could taste it in the back of his throat, along with the sick-sweet scent of burning flesh, and the taste of fire itself, a fire that knew no purpose but destruction. Tendrils of that flame leapt from the surface of the lake, thin crimson whiplets that lashed around him, caressing, probing, stroking, gliding over his pale flesh without burning, toying almost playfully with his hair and robes, even as the wind had. A welcome of sorts, from one master of Ashura-jou to another, a fiery embrace that drew him on, even as the deepest parts of his soul screamed in anguish and grief, in condemnation of his own folly, at the true enormity of this betrayal.  
  
He passed soundlessly through the crimson-lit halls of Ashura-jou, struggling to look neither right nor left, not wishing to see, again, the terrible carnage that had attended this moment, the butcher's bill that his foolishness had tallied. It was enough to know that the floors beneath his feet were sanguine and slick, and the stench of death clung to the ancient walls, hung thick in the superheated air, and the souls of the dead swirled around him, crying out in agony and hatred. He wished his heart twice as cold as it had ever been, wished for numbness to dull his abraded soul, and neither wish was answered; his face, scorched raw, stung as his eyes filled and overflowed and a cry of grief welled up in his throat.  
  
As he stepped into the throne room of Ashura-jou.  
  
Awash in blood to the depth of his ankles...  
  
Sheets of crimson flame writhing over the fire-blackened walls, showing vistas of devastation, of absolute destruction, of merciless slaughter, of death so vast even Death was glutted on the butchery..  
  
A throne of skulls stripped of flesh and draped in blood-colored silk in which a single figure, a single living creature lounged, fine pale flesh wrapped in layers of scarlet and gold, a blade of clear crystal across his lap, an extravagant cascade of jet hair glittering liquidly, the longest tendrils of which trailed across the bloody floor. His eyes, sunlit golden, vibrant, beautiful, turned from the joyous contemplation of the horror he had wrought and he rose, elegant, slender arms outstretched and pure, dark voice crying out in true delight. "Father!"  
  
Warm arms enfolded him, drawing him into a fierce embrace, and he felt his own arms winding around his son's waist, their bodies pressed closely together, Ashura-ou burying his face in his son's blood-scented hair. Listened to his son's perfect voice whispering words of love, felt his hands stroking through his hair in an impossibly soothing motion. Felt their hearts beating in time, his blood pulsing with the same call to ruin, the same desire to kill, the same hunger for blood and devastation, the same soul-deep need to destroy. Tears poured down his face. Gods help me, what have I done? What am I going to do?  
  
Ashura-ou lay perfectly still in the coolly soothing comfort of his empty bed, wound in layers of silk and supported by layers of cushions and pillows, and stared blankly up at the vaulted ceiling until he was certain he was fully conscious, and the vision would not return again. He tasted salt on his lips, and the skin of his face stiffening with it, the pillow beneath his cheek damp, and for a moment completely failed to care. There was no one to see, after all, for he had commanded that he be left in peace before he retired, and no summons but one from Tentai himself should disturb him; well-trained, they had not gainsaid him in any way but their perfectly elegant acceptance of his command. Even the Twelve, who were normally inclined to argue points about security, had taken their leave of him with minimal debate. He wondered, briefly, what would become of them, and was rewarded with a flicker of images passing across the surface of his eyes.  
  
One day, I will learn not to ask questions of myself. Ashura-ou squeezed his eyes closed against a rush of hot tears, and succeeded in catching most of them behind his lashes. He knew, he had always known, how they would meet their endings, and it was on nights like this that he felt the need to remind himself of it again. To remind himself of the horrible price of what he was planning, to remember that he alone would not pay that price. He swallowed a sound of pain and pushed himself away from his pillows, drawing his robe around himself and staring almost-blindly around his cavernous empty bedchamber. There was not even the possibility of sleep any longer for tonight; he looked down at his bed with active revulsion and he strode away from it, and from his chamber, without any true destination in mind. It was even worse to prowl the coolly lighted halls of Ashura-jou, for every hall and turn and courtyard reminded him of what he had seen, and what he would do, what he would have to do, and how it all would end.  
  
It was not, he acknowledged to himself as he began the slow climb from Ashura-jou to Zenmi-jou, going to be a very good night.  
  
**************************************************************************** **********  
  
Taishakuten regarded the mosaiced ceiling of his bedchamber, groaned deeply as it continued in its failure to relax him, and rolled to his side. He had, like every other visitor to the Heavenly City for this festive occasion, been accorded chambers that were typically set aside for honored guests and other such dignitaries. They were, like every other such chamber, luxuriously appointed, with pleasingly thick carpets, elegant and exceedingly comfortable furnishings, and dozens of no-doubt easily breakable objects of dubious utility that added to the general feel of living in someone else's house. It was not, Taishakuten acknowledged to himself through gritted teeth, the ideal place to come in an effort to relax after an evening of laborious socialization with the vultures of the Court. Not that he would have been able to relax in any case, but some places were less irritating than others to his already fully-roused nerves. He rolled onto his back again and released a slow, deep breath, forcing his hands to unball from the fists they had curled into. He had not expected to enjoy his time in the capital very much at all. His preparation for that lack of enjoyment had not stilled his aggravation, particularly as the day had dragged on into the evening, and the fundamental inanity of it all had begun wearing on him with a painful, grinding intensity. It had been all he could do, at a number of points, not to completely discard any attempts at courtly civility and simply turn and stride from the room, leaving both the Court and everyone in it behind, returning from the north and completing the mission he had been dragged from. That would, however, have burned far too many bridges that he might need again later, and so he had stayed, and smiled, and made reasonably polite conversation, and performed as well as he felt himself able given the circumstances.  
  
His thoughts danced restlessly around his entirely too brief encounter with Ashura-ou. In retrospect, he had to wonder what had possessed him-and then he had also to wonder what had possessed the Emperor, to accept, despite the War God's visible reluctance. And why, ultimately, Ashura-ou himself had not objected more strongly, for the right of refusal had ultimately been his..or, it should have been, inasmuch as he was the challenged and not the challenger. It troubled him, in some wordless way, even as he had taken supreme delight in watching Ashura-ou's perfect grace and skill, in the sound of Paranjya and Shuratou's blades singing together, in the sunlit gold of Ashura-ou's eyes and the night- darkness of his hair. He was beauty, and he was grace, and he was all the things that Taishakuten was not, but which he valued in others. And when he found the slightest trace of Ashura-ou's blood on Paranjya's edge, he had been shocked, for he had not thought that a blow had actually been landed, his blade had not, to his awareness, slowed or registered the shock of contact, and neither had Ashura-ou reacted to being cut.  
  
It had not, he was forced to acknowledge to himself, been the ideal way to draw Ashura-ou's attention.  
  
With a growl, Taishakuten heaved himself out of the far-too- comfortable bed, fished about for his night robe and pulled it on. The only good thing about the rooms he was currently occupying was their location convenient to the gardens, which meant that fresh, spring-scented air flowed through the windows at all times and he could literally walk ten paces down the hall and out into the relative comfort of the night. The gardens were nearly another world compared to Zenmi-jou's halls and galleries, filled with far too many people who were certain of their own importance in the insanely convoluted scheme of the Court's life. Here there was peace, relative though it might be, and quiet, and the sense of the world, of growing things that had no knowledge of politics or society, and would not have cared if they did. Taishakuten allowed himself a soft, soft smile as the wind rolled over him, sweet with the harmonious perfumes of dozens of different types of flowers, and touched with the cool scent of flowing water and budding trees. The winter had been far too long, and he had been steeped in both it and war for long enough. The path he walked was bordered on both sides by well-tended expanses of lawn, copses of flowering trees, and the whole was illuminated by lanterns cunningly wrought to blend almost unnoticeably into the foliage. Overhead, the sky was bright with stars and the thinnest sliver of crescent moon, and so he had no difficulty seeing the path before him or where it led. A small stream wended its way across the path ahead, a small wooden bridge arching over it, and there another figure stood, draped in black shot through with gold, leaning against the balustrade, head bowed so that the shoulder- length hair obscured his face.  
  
It did not, however, obscure the identity, for Taishakuten would have known that lean and elegant form, the dark hair and pale, long-fingered hands, had he no eyes at all. He felt his throat go dry, a tremor running through his own form as, responding to some small sound he must have made, Ashura-ou raised his head and looked in his direction, half in shadow beneath the trees. The golden eyes rested upon him but, thankfully, did not capture his own, playing slowly over him. Taishakuten firmly resisted the urge to shiver, to react in any way, for he could nearly feel the caress of warm hands over his body, and the desire that lanced through him was so fierce it was almost frightening.  
  
Ashura-ou's voice was dark, low and soft, when he finally spoke. "Raijin Taishakuten.I see that you are spending a restless night, as well."  
  
Something in Ashura-ou's tone, or the words that he spoke, finally released Taishakuten from his physical and mental paralysis. "You might say that." Taishakuten found a wry smile curling his mouth and he allowed it to stay as he approached the golden light from the lamps lining the bridge falling over his face. "I am afraid that after more than a year in the field, I am no longer accustomed to the luxury of Zenmi-jou."  
  
"I can imagine that you must not be," Ashura-ou's tone was dry, his own eyes glittering in the light of the lamps. "I am given to understand from both Ryuu-ou and the documents I have read that the campaign was even more strenuous than we had expected it to be."  
  
"It was not," Taishakuten admitted, coming to a halt less than a blade-length from Ashura-ou's black-clad form, "an experience that I am anxious to repeat."  
  
"Hopefully," Spoken so quietly he barely caught the words, "you will not have to.for some time yet. Tell me, Raijin-"  
  
"Taishakuten," the word was out before he could stop it.  
  
"Taishakuten," Ashura-ou lifted golden eyes to his own, and it was all he could do not to surrender to the pull he had felt earlier, could still feel, even now. "tell me, do you ever think of the future? Of what may happen weeks, months, years from now?"  
  
Taishakuten opened his mouth, then closed it again, his practiced, self-assured answer unspoken. There was something in Ashura-ou's normally unreadable eyes, his normally pale, composed face, that obliterated any such belief, in himself or in anything else. A feverish intensity, a fierce need for-what? He nearly named it 'comfort' but such a thought was completely alien, supremely unlikely, and he discarded it the instant it crossed his mind. But that expression still persisted, a look that was not quite a plea. "I.do often. I wonder many things.."  
  
"Do you question yourself-and actions you have not yet taken, but may yet take?" It was in his voice now, giving his tone an edge that had not been there before, and, try as he might, Taishakuten could not read it clearly.  
  
"I wish I could say that I do not," Taishakuten admitted dryly.  
  
"Do not," Again that soft, almost voiceless tone, "think the less of yourself for the questioning, Taishakuten."  
  
He was silent then, brilliant eyes lowering again to the contemplation of the water drifting swiftly past them, the reflection of the stars and the glitter of the lamps, and Taishakuten drew even closer, unbidden even by himself. The dark curtain of his hair fell across Ashura- ou's face and Taishakuten's hands itched to brush it back, to run his fingers through its cool silken length, to caress the cheek it lay against. Moonlight graced the lord of the Ashura Clan in ways that even sunlight did not, turning his marble-pale skin silver rather than white, gleaming in perfect counterpoint to his fire eyes and midnight hair. His long-fingered hands, unadorned, laced themselves together and Taishakuten, daring greatly, laid his own over them, callused fingers caressing smooth, soft skin. The turn of Ashura-ou's head placed their faces inches apart, and Taishakuten breathed in softly, sampling the spice of his scent. "What do you question, Ashura-ou?"  
  
"Everything," An endless weariness in his voice, his golden eyes showing depths of fatigue that Taishakuten had not even guessed at. "always. I have no other choice."  
  
"There are always choices, Ashura-ou. One needs only to search until they are found." It was all he could do not to draw Ashura into his arms- he had already broken the promise he had made to himself, that he would not touch what was not his to claim.  
  
The smile that curved Ashura-ou's perfect mouth was bitter beyond words. "Taishakuten-"  
  
"My Lord." Taishakuten and Ashura-ou both started, Taishakuten disengaging his hands and taking a half-step backward, reflexively reaching for the weapon he had refrained from bringing with him. Ashura-ou merely went utterly still, his hands falling to his sides and becoming lost in the trailing sleeves of his long robe, half-turning to face the liveried servant that had come upon them so silently. He bowed deeply and held it until Ashura-ou acknowledged the obeisance-taking perhaps a fraction longer than was strictly necessary, while Taishakuten composed himself. "Ashura- ou, Tentai craves your presence in his chambers at your earliest convenience."  
  
Taishakuten's silver eyes widened a fraction, and he opened his mouth to protest the lateness of the hour-then closed it when Ashura-ou nodded his acknowledgement of the request. "Please inform Tentai that I shall join him immediately."  
  
The servant bowed deeply to Taishakuten, then a fraction deeper to Ashura-ou, retreated the customary three paces, and fled back down the path. Ashura-ou waited until he had departed before turning again to Taishakuten, golden eyes hooded, his face a thing of expressionless shadow. "I.It would please me to speak with you again, Taishakuten."  
  
"The pleasure would be my own, Ashura-ou." Taishakuten bowed deeply, and held the gesture long enough for Ashura-ou to realize that it was given in earnest. When he rose, the lord of the Ashura Clan was gone. 


	4. And To See Him Smile Chapter 4

And To See Him Smile  
  
Part IV  
  
A RG Veda Story  
  
by Myranda Kalis  
  
  
  
Ryuu-ou prowled the corridors of Zenmi-jou, hunting the most dangerous prey to be had in all of the Heavenly Realm, padding softly on the balls of her feet, removing even her armor and sword so as not to be overheard. He walked several hundred feet ahead of her, his dark head down, contemplating some thought to which she was not yet privy--but, even so, she knew his senses were sharp enough to detect her approach, distracted or not. They were approaching the turns that led to the lower halls of Zenmi-jou, and from there, the entranceway to Ashura-jou, and she moved quickly to cut him off from his escape, dashing as quickly as she dared down the shadowed side gallery and lurking there until he came within striking range.  
  
The look on Ashura-ou's face, as Ryuu-ou physically pounced on him from the shadows, was beyond price, and Ryuu-ou laughed helplessly at it--though not before she reached out and restrained his hand from reflexively drawing forth Shuratou. "Skittish, are we not?"  
  
"Nagaina," Ashura-ou began, heavy repression in his tone.  
  
"I will take that as a 'yes,'" Ryuu-ou's evil, elfin grin succeeded in melting Ashura-ou's disapproval of her lurking tactics, and relaxed his face into his softest smile. "I wanted to talk to you after the council meeting today, but you fled the chamber as quickly as your legs could carry you, and Jikokuten's rant about Taishakuten was too amusing to miss."  
  
"You will have to give me the highlights," Ashura's golden eyes sought the vaulted ceiling in an unconcealed expression of annoyance. "Provided he actually said anything new."  
  
"Nothing new, just a good deal less invective--he can be very clever with language when he wishes, the Eastern Shittenou." Ryuu-ou slipped her arm through Ashura's and allowed him to lead her from her skulking place and into the hall. "Needless to say, the good Shogun was less than pleased with the notion of Taishakuten's inclusion in the ranks of the Bushinshou, to the extent of refusing to even contemplate the notion of allowing him place in the East, should the Raijin decide to settle there."  
  
"I suppose it would be asking too much from the gods for Jikokuten to bend his mind, even a fraction." Ashura laced his fingers with hers, and smiled wryly.  
  
"Of course! Asking for open-mindedness and flexibility from Jikokuten and receiving it would be the ultimate sign that the world is about to come screaming to its end." Ryuu-ou snorted. "The others, however, were slightly more amenable to the notion, given his good service--and the strength of his sword. The Shittenou he serves beneath would quite possibly be the strongest in all of the Tenkai." She gazed at him from beneath the veil of her lashes. "Excepting the Emperor, of course."  
  
"Of course." Ashura's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I mislike it when you attempt to flatter me, Nagaina."  
  
"What flattery? It is pure truth, my brother," Sweetness incarnate.  
  
"Then why is it that I sense a trap about to snap closed around me?" Ashura halted in the middle of the corridor and pulled her to a halt with him, eyes catching hers and holding.  
  
"Because you are too sensitive?" Ryuu suggested helpfully. "Truth, my brother--the council of the Shittenou and Bushinshou has adjourned to consider the notion of Taishakuten's elevation, and Tentai has allowed the recess for the lot of us to gather our wits about us so we can advise him more wisely. I am going to be returning to Naga-jou for a few weeks."  
  
"I will be desolate in your absence," Ashura-ou promised wryly.  
  
"Do not be desolate--come with me. You have been promising to come to the West with me for months, and with the war ended and peace restored, you have no excuse not to." She wound her arms around his and gazed up at him cajolingly. "Please, Ashura. Father would love to have you, and my two nephews would supply you with all the awestruck adulation you could possibly require. Please, come home with me."  
  
"Tentai--" Ashura began helplessly, their tangled limbs preventing him from making an accompanying gesture.  
  
"Tentai and I," Ryuu informed him sweetly, "have already discussed this topic--at length. And, at length, the Emperor has decided that, should you express a desire to venture from Zenmi-jou and its environs for a time, the Twelve should be more than sufficient to protect his person in your absence. It has not escaped his attention that you have been in something of a mood, of late, and suspects that a change of scene might be just what you need to restore your good humor."  
  
Ashura blinked. "And to think, Nagaina, that I once believed you singularly unsuited for any sort of espionage."  
  
"It is always my pleasure to surprise you, brother mine."  
  
"I will remember that. This is not," he added suspiciously, "some elaborate attempt to throw your relatives off the track of finding a husband for you, by throwing them on the track of finding a wife for me, is it?"  
  
"Would I do that to you, Ashura-chan?" She looked up at him, dewy aquamarine eyes agleam with wounded innocence.  
  
Ashura snorted in a most un-Ashuralike manner. "In a heartbeat."  
  
Ryuu-ou was, for an instant, the picture of aggrieved sincerity and filial sentiment. Ashura was forced to laugh. "I should leave you hanging for at least three days, you know. Yes."  
  
Ryuu-ou bounded up the four inches it took to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Oh, thank you, Ashura! Now I can hide behind you when they start throwing unmarried young men at me! Shall I tell Tentai of your decision, or will you?"  
  
"You shall," Ashura smiled wryly. "Tentai banished me from his presence under less than pleased circumstances, the last time I spoke with him, and, in any case, if I am going to make the excursion to the ends of the world with you I will have to begin my preparations immediately."  
  
"Do not pack half your life, Ashura--Naga-jou, if you will remember, is not that large."  
  
**************************************************************************  
  
  
  
Disbanding an army was, by far, less satisfying than building one. It was, however, substantially more satisfying than writing letters of condolence to bereaved parents, wives, siblings, and children, an activity that Taishakuten had never felt himself quite good at. It was not that he hadn't any sympathy for bereavement--expressing it was simply never his strong suit. It was with that thought in mind that he had settled down upon his return to the northern base camp, and begun the laborious process of reviewing, paying, and releasing his troops back to the lives they had occupied before the war. The ones that had lives other than the service to the imperial armies, about a third of the total force that had been under his command, according to the plethora of documents that accompanied the task of demobilization. True, the army scribes and clerks did the vast majority of the paper work themselves, but, as the general in command, it was required that he read nearly every scrap of it and then sign off on the various commendations, disciplinary actions, documents releasing traveling funds for units and officers returning to their home regions, documents releasing funds for the renumeration of the various merchants who had provisioned and supplied his army, as well as every single other detail he might have let wait until this moment. It was closer to dawn than midnight when he finally finished the last bit, crossed his final word, and signed his last signature, laid aside his pen, capped the nearly empty bottle of ink, and flexed his terribly cramped hands.  
  
"My wrists did not hurt this much after my first lesson in sword," Taishakuten muttered to himself, as his knuckles cracked and the tendons creaked and groaned in protest.  
  
"You could," his elderly servant pointed out pleasantly, emerging from the sleeping chamber of his tent, carrying a bowl of warm water fragrantly scented with herbs, "have let some of this wait until tomorrow."  
  
"I could have," Taishakuten acknowledged, as the old man set the bowl down before him, packing up the neatly stacked documents and binding them together with ribbons and wax, "but all of this--" His gesture took in the documents, the now-empty sacks containing the funds he had been supplied, the ribbons, and the sealing wax sticks, "would still have been here. Better to finish quickly."  
  
"Soak your wrists and hands, or they will cramp," the servant, defeated on one front, turned immediately to the next vulnerable approach.  
  
Taishakuten smiled tiredly and did as he was told, too weary to argue. The warm water soothed the cramps from his muscles, relaxed the tension from his tendons, and even made the bones seem to ache less. The old servant busied himself for several moments, wrapping and dripping wax and stamping the neat bundles closed with Taishakuten's seal while the Raijin watched in companionable silence, letting the fatigue push him closer to sleep. His bed awaited him in the next room, and his dreams, for the last several days, had been more and more pleasant.  
  
"So," the old man asked quietly, startling Taishakuten at least half awake again, "did you meet him?"  
  
"I met him," Taishakuten affirmed, the memory no longer inducing a desire to cringe when he thought of it.  
  
"And was he all that you might have desired?" A leathery hand touched his elbow gently and drew him up, against no resistance at all.  
  
"More," Taishakuten admitted, trying to keep a foolish smile off his face and only half-succeeding.  
  
"That is good," He allowed himself to be guided to his bed, the old servant automatically assisting him in removing his armor, stacking it neatly on his travel chest. "And what else?"  
  
"The Emperor is considering the possibility of elevating me to the rank of Bushinshou," Somehow, that seemed less important than it might have a year ago. "It is my understanding that the possibility was presented to the council of Tentai's advisors, who are debating it even as we speak." A yawn.  
  
"That is good." The old man pulled down the covers and Taishakuten obediently sought the comfort of his pillows. "And are you now well- pleased?"  
  
"For now," Taishakuten murmured, remembering the sensation of pale soft skin beneath his hands, "very well pleased."  
  
A smiled creased the old man's leathery face. "Good. A good rest to you, Raijin Taishakuten. May your dreams continue to please you."  
  
Taishakuten let his strained eyes slide close as the servant leaned over and blew out the lamp. "I do not see how they could not."  
  
***************************************************************************  
  
"Ashura-ou is no longer at Zenmi-jou."  
  
Taishakuten froze, his cup half-way to his mouth, silver eyes wide as he regarded his aged servant over the polished rim. "What....?"  
  
"While we were at Zenmi-jou, I spoke often with the servants of the other generals and nobles that shared accomodations with us." The old man continued his industrious packing of Taishakuten's belongings into the several travel chests, packs, and saddle bags scattered about the interior of the tent. All around them, the sounds of the camp breaking--chattering people, collapsing canvas, ill-tempered horses and other pack animals being loaded--travelled through the walls of Taishakuten's own pavilion, providing a pleasant enough background noise to his own preparations for departure--back to Zenmi-jou, he had already decided. Taishakuten lowered his breakfast cup back to the table, untasted. "I received a letter this morning from one of them--a young lady of the Ashura Clan. She tells me that the council of the advisors has adjourned until Summer Court is called several weeks from now, where they will speak with Tentai concerning your elevation. She also tells me that Ashura-ou has departed from Zenmi-jou in the company of Ryuu-ou. He is accompanying her to Naga-jou in the West for the extended visit he had promised her some time ago, and has finally been coaxed into taking."  
  
Silence. Taishakuten lifted his cup again and sipped its contents meditatively, silver eyes wide and unseeing. He had not thought of the possibility that Ashura-ou might leave Zenmi-jou before he returned from disbanding his army--not, he was forced to concede to himself, that there had been much precedent for it. Ashura-ou almost never left Ashura-jou, much less the Heavenly City; the concept of him on a lengthy journey from the Emperor's side was almost beyond consideration. "Friends among the servants, eh?"  
  
"Servants often know far more than we are given credit for," the old man informed him primly, buckling another pack closed.  
  
"Oh?" Taishakuten set his cup down again and focussed all of his considerable concentration on the old man. "Such as?"  
  
"Ryuu-ou, of all the Bushinshou, is the one most potentially friendly to your elevation to that rank--she has, after all, served at your side and, while she was silent in council, it is suspected that she favors you for your strength. Koumokuten is neutral, though Ryuu-ou's good opinion could sway him." The saddle bags joined the packs stacked next to the door. "Jikokuten of the Shittenou is active in his antipathy for you--I believe he disliked the manner in which you addressed his wife, the illustrious Kendappa-ou--and will in all likelihood oppose such an elevation. Kendappa- ou herself is unlikely to advise against her own husband. Karura-ou is neutral, though Zouchouten admires your boldness. Bishamonten is of an age with you and one can expect that he appreciates your strength and ambition. Yasha-ou has not had anything to say publicly in one way or another."  
  
"And Ashura-ou?" Taishakuten asked wryly.  
  
"Ashura-ou has also been silent--and one does not question the words or silences of the Lord of the Ashura Clan for any reason." He locked the travel chest, lifting it with surprising strength and setting it down with the rest of the baggage. "Though, it can be said, that the only opinion that matters more to the Emperor than Ashura-ou's is his own."  
  
Taishakuten's eyes narrowed a contemplative fraction, and the old servant paused briefly to watch the thoughts that flickered through them before stepping out to summon one of the stable servants to bring the Raijin's mount and pack animals. By the time he returned, Taishakuten had formulated a question to go with his thoughts, and he looked up sharply. "So," he began quietly, "it can be conceived that the council of advisors can be turned on the pivot of the West?"  
  
"That is," the servant admitted, "a strong possibility."  
  
"And Ashura-ou's opinion also carries greater weight with the Emperor than all the Shittenou and Bushinshou combined." That was not a question, but a musing, and the servant felt no obligation to answer it. "I think, perhaps, it would be a pleasant time of year to visit the West...." 


	5. And To See Him Smile Chapter 5

And To See Him Smile  
  
Part V  
  
A RG Veda Story  
  
By Myranda Kalis  
  
  
  
There was something uniquely soothing about the air in the West, Ashura-ou had long ago decided, something which no other place in the Heavenly Realm could come close to matching. It could be the fact that the Western Realm was farthest from the center of Tenkai, nearly on the edge of the world, and wilder because of it. The lands surrounding Naga-jou were rougher, wilder, less civilized than the heartlands of the Heavenly Realm, and the Sea which was a Realm unto itself spread out on three of its sides. The air was cooler, scented with salt rather than the perfume of too many flowers, and scrubbed clean whatever it passed over the way the waves raked the beaches clean on a calm day. A thousand small islands were scattered just off shore, and a thousand small inlets and lagoons graced the line of the coast, itself as jagged as a mazuko's smile.  
  
And, of course, there was no comparison for Naga-jou, particularly not overlarge Zenmi-jou and its occupants. Zenmi-jou, filled though it was with ministers and courtiers and all the apparatus of government, was a home to no one but the Emperor. It was, despite its great beauty, a cold and unwelcoming place. Even Ashura-jou, despite its own splendor, the strange and compelling sights that could be seen through its kekkai, did not soothe him the way Naga-jou did with its simple grace, its unprepossessing size, its feeling of home. He had not, after all, been primarily raised within the confines of Ashura-jou and the Heavenly City, but here, with the members of Nagaina's far-flung and wildly diverse collection of aunts, uncles, cousins, several-times-removed cousins, and not very near at all relations. Ryuu, despite the fact that it had the smallest holding of any, was an enormous Clan, and each of the coastal islands could boast as a resident some member of the royal house. A small home clinging to the bluffs could be the abode of some distant relation. And, at any given moment, one of them could drop by for a brief visit that, knowing the fondness the Ryuu Clan had for its own company, could easily last for several years.  
  
Ashura-ou reflected philosophically on this as he sat in the westward- facing pavilion, sipping his breakfast tea and listening with perfectly concealed amusement as Nagaina gave her Aunt Lakshimi thirty good reasons why it was inappropriate for her to marry her aunt's friend's cousin's youngest son. He had to admit to himself, as Nagaina paused for breath and then swung into the twenty-fourth reason, that some of them were very good indeed, wildly creative beyond even his own abilities to dodge the issue of marriage, and this was a virtuoso performance in inspired bachelorhood.  
  
"Nagaina, you must listen to reason. The entire clan is concerned-" Lakshimi broke in as Ryuu-ou refreshed her breath again, and Ashura-ou set his cup down and found something more substantial to put in his mouth. Lakshimi's rare turns at speaking inevitably led to her pleas for his intervention against the dangerously headstrong nature of her niece.  
  
"The entire clan," Nagaina's eyes flashed and her cheeks suffused with the charming pink she turned when thoroughly enraged, "does not have to marry. I do. And, by the gods, if I do marry, it will be the man of my own choosing."  
  
"My Lord Ashura-ou," Lakshimi turned melting dark eyes the color of the sea at sunset on him, and he managed to look simultaneously supportive and unable to speak around the piece of bread he was chewing, "Nagaina. Please-consider what I ask. All you have to do is meet the boy-I am not asking you to carry him off to the garden and ravish him on the spot."  
  
Ashura choked, a completely unfeigned choke, and both Lakshimi and Nagaina were forced to call a temporary halt to the hostilities, slapping him enthusiastically between the shoulders until he could breathe normally again. "Nagaina," he managed to croak after a moment of silent recovery time, "perhaps you should meet-what was the young lord's name again?"  
  
"Duryea," Lakshimi supplied helpfully.  
  
"Perhaps you should meet him, if only to set the minds of your concerned people to rest?" Ashura's tone was sweetness itself, the look that Ryuu gave him could have stripped ten inches of barnacles from a ship's hull.  
  
"It will not kill you, Nagaina." Lakshimi's tone was considerably less sweet, though not hard enough to be considered an actual command.  
  
Caught between the two, Ryuu could do nothing but cross her arms and mutter into her chest, "All right. Bring him. But if he brings me any gifts and begins speaking as though the betrothal agreement is all but signed, I am throwing him in the lagoon and using him for spear-fishing practice."  
  
Lakshimi smiled a demure but triumphant smile and leaned across the low table to place a motherly kiss on Ryuu's cheek. "Thank you, Naga-chan. You will not regret this. My Lord." She bowed from the shoulders to Ashura-ou and rose in a fall of emerald silk, striding away in a graceful yet determined manner down the path toward the main hall of Naga-jou.  
  
"I regret it already. And some help you are!" Had it not been beneath her dignity, she would have thrown one of the cushions they were lounging on at him, he was certain of it. "It would serve them all right if I ran off and had a flaming affair with some fisherman's son, begot an heir, and never married!"  
  
Ashura, a sip of tea half-way down his throat, had a sudden flash of exactly whom Nagaina would marry and made a sound half-way between a strangled gasp and burst of helpless laughter, and ended up choking again. Nagaina's hard little hand came down between his shoulderblades with force sufficient to dislodge a lung. "One day, Ashura, we will managed to sit down to table and nothing anyone says will cause you to choke on your meal."  
  
".And the world will end later that same day," Ashura completely wryly, dabbing his lips dry with a napkin. "You have no idea how much I have missed the simple joys of a meal with your family, Nagaina."  
  
"Having been forced to sit through the same number of state dinners as you, my brother, I know exactly how much you have missed it." She patted his hand fondly, and smiled. "Now, are you not glad you came with me?"  
  
"Exceedingly," Ashura admitted.  
  
"I thought as much-my wedding-happy relatives notwithstanding." A pair of young voices rang up from the expanse of laboriously cultivated garden below, attracting their attention to Nagaina's two (youngest) nephews, Seiryuu and Hyakuryuu, where they played some game that appeared to principally involve them trying to bludgeon one another senseless. For just an instant, Nagaina's face softened, an almost wistful look coming into her eyes. "One day.it will be nice to have a son or daughter to call my own. But not now."  
  
Ashura closed his eyes quickly, his nails digging into his palm until the pain banished the half-formed vision dancing before his eyes. I do not want to know!  
  
Nagaina's hand rested over his own, and he started slightly, eyes flying to her face, etched with open concern. "You saw something."  
  
A crooked half-smile curled his mouth. "I did. It was nothing. Truly, Nagaina."  
  
"'Nothing' does not normally make that look come to your face," Her tone was low and gentle, "but I will choose to believe you for now-since we have had more than enough harassment for one morning. What are your plans for today?"  
  
"Actually, I was thinking of doing-absolutely nothing! Again! Well, perhaps I will distract your father from the expectant husband search with a game of wasp and lotus.I have not, after all, had a chance to sit and play quietly with him since we came." The word that Ryuu-ou was returning home to Naga-jou in the company of Ashura-ou had made the rounds of rumor in Zenmi-jou at close to the speed of thought, and from thence it had traveled to every town, village, farmstead, and freeholding between Zenmi- jou and the Western Realm. Their journey had thusly been slowed by at least several days, since everyone that had ever harbored the slightest trace of curiosity about either of them had turned out to give their greetings, offer their hospitality, and generally display as much gratitude as could be given while they pounded by on horseback. Nagaina, after several days of the "run from them and they will get the point" tactics, had finally signaled surrender and begun accepting the adulation that was her due as one of the greatest warriors of the Heavenly Realm. Their delays on the road, unfortunately, had also given the Ryuu Clan itself an opportunity to prepare for their sovereign lady's return-preparations which had included an enormous feast, a rather lusty party afterwards, and upwards of a thousand guests-only half of which were actual relatives. The other half, it seemed, were all suitors and Nagaina, true to her word, had hidden behind him until a substantial portion of them had gotten the hint and gone home, to await future attempts at storming the battlements of her considerable resolve. Quiet time for relaxation had, for the first few days of the visit, been at an all-time premium in Naga-jou.  
  
"Father will love you if you do-he has half the servants and a third of the relatives convinced that that old wound of his will kill him before I give him a grandchild, and the other half and two-thirds convinced his mind is finally going. I am relying on you to convince them all otherwise." Ryuu rose, straightening the hem of her sea blue tunic.  
  
"And where are you going?"  
  
"I am going to find a fisherman's son."  
  
Ashura's helpless laughter accompanied her down the path.  
  
  
  
Taishakuten smiled as the first hint of salty air reached him-the air of the Western Realm had a distinctive scent to it, one that he had appreciated during the brief time he had spent there several years before, one which he could easily grow accustomed to. Far more easily, he realized, than he ever could to Zenmi-jou, no matter how pleasant the Heavenly City might otherwise be. His heart would always long for open spaces rather than the confinement of protective walls, and the Western Realm certainly did not lack in that area, with its unfathomed sea, and islands jutting from the foam like teeth from the jaw of some enormous leviathan. "I could learn to like it here."  
  
His elderly servant, clinging tenaciously to the saddle of his somewhat smaller horse, nobly refrained from observing that Taishakuten could feel comfortable with all four limbs amputated and a mazuko witch- priestess gnawing on his innards if it meant he could see Ashura-ou on a regular basis. Instead, he murmured quietly, "Ryuu-ou rules over a kingdom of rare beauty. Listen to the birds.."  
  
Seabirds singing were not usually Taishakuten's favorite sounds, but for some reason the raucous calls of the cliff-dwelling creatures didn't grate today. He picked up the lead of his servant's horse and guided it carefully after his own down the trail lining the bluff, smiling as the wind whipped his hair, the lowering sun glinting off the waves. The last few weeks, he was forced to admit, glancing over his shoulder at the old man, hunched over the neck of his horse, cloak wrapped tightly around his thin body, had not exactly been easy on him, accustomed to camp life though he was. The old man had not been forced to make time in the way they had for decades, and the winter had been hard on him as well, though he would never admit it. Taishakuten harbored a quiet hope that the sea air would help him recover from the illness that still lingered, for the healers had assured him before he had left the north that sea air was the best cure for ailments of the lungs. Neatly dovetailing all of his objectives was the fact that Ryuu-ou was a sitting member of the Emperor's council of advisors, and Ashura-ou was in Naga-jou; for all intents and purposes, he could not have made all of this fall together better if he had planned it himself and, he strongly suspected, someone, somewhere, had planned it. They had stayed at a traveler's hostel the night before, the first real beds they had slept in in literally months, and Taishakuten had spoken with the innkeeper, consulted the milestones, and plotted over his own maps to make absolutely certain of the distance to their destination. One more day, perhaps less, and they would also be in Naga-jou, where, at the very least, he would request a place of honor for his old servant to retire, and would, in all likelihood, ask for far more before he was done.  
  
  
  
It was, Ryuu-ou thought, an exceedingly pretty day, even for the West. The sky was perfectly clear without a trace of cloud to disturb the pristine arch of crystal blue above her, and the sun shone down with a warmth that made summer's nearness quite completely known. The wind was off the land, playing in her short auburn hair like the fingers of her mother's lady-maids had when she was much younger, and someone was laboring under the delusion that she might yet become a Proper Young Lady. Laughter echoed up from the terraced gardens and pavilions below her rooms, the children of nobles and servants alike playing among the flowering plants and lush grass and tide-pools and sandy strands. She wished, with a sudden intensity, to be down among them with her does off and sand between her toes, with her best friend catching fingerfish from the pools and running across the wet sand in an effort to out-pace the waves. A sudden, intense desire seized her to invade Ashura's chambers, drag him from whatever he was doing, and haul him somewhere far away from Naga-jou, at least for the day-a desire nearly as intense as the one that had seized her to bring him here in the first place. Her breath hissed through her teeth as, thoroughly annoyed with herself and her wordless premonitions, she turned away from the screened window and roared for her secretary. The deeply harassed young man materialized immediately, catching sight of his sovereign's incomparable form through the filmy blue-green material of her night robe, and hastily averted his eyes before his thoughts became visible on his cheeks.  
  
"What must I do today?" She demanded, dropping her robe to the floor and spinning to her wardrobe, to the horror of her waiting maidservants.  
  
Fortunately for him, the secretary's eyes were still glued to the floor. "Your Highness' is scheduled to attend a meeting of the Clan elders this morning and to rule on several matters of their concern, including the Twin Islands' petition concerning their fishing rights, which has been waiting several months with no resolution in sight."  
  
Ryuu-ou twitched; there went the morning. The Lords of the Twin Islands were, as the name implied, twin brothers who had, according to their mother, fought through every moment of their stay in her womb and had not stopped fighting in all the days since. She was inclined to agree, since she had never seen the two of them exchange a more than half-cordial word in all the years that she'd known them, and each of them could find fault and argue over the smallest things.  
  
"You are taking the midday meal with your father and Ashura-ou." That was slightly better. Father, whom had been claiming his death was near ever since she had rejected her first suitor, had made a miraculous recovery in the presence of Ashura and was once again thudding about Naga- jou as thought he could easily live another thousand years with no trouble at all. "And this evening you are taking the late dinner hour with Lord Duryea."  
  
"Gods help me," Ryuu-ou mourned aloud, as her maidservants rapidly went about assembling her morning costume and then placing it on her. "What possessed me-"  
  
"Your Highness!" Ryuu-ou, the secretary, and the maidservants all turned to the door, Ryuu-ou, for modesty's sake, finishing lacing her tunic closed before the young soldier hovering their could die of shock. "A guest has arrived-he is waiting at the gates and craves an audience with you."  
  
"Have all the morning petitioners already arrived?" Ryuu-ou asked her secretary in a low tone, to which she received a nod of affirmation. "Who is this guest, subaltern?"  
  
The guard seemed to be having some difficulty getting the words out around whatever obstruction was sitting in his throat. Ryuu-ou waited, patiently for her, and he finally managed, "He gives his name as Raijin Taishakuten, Your Highness."  
  
"Raijin Taishakuten?" Ryuu-ou's first maid gasped, dropping the article of clothing she held unnoticed.  
  
"The God of Lightning?" The second maid amplified, too well trained to leave her place at Ryuu-ou's side-though it was a very close race between passionate curiosity and duty.  
  
"Taishakuten is here?" Ryuu-ou's tone was strained and silenced all secondary comments.  
  
"He is at the gates, Your Highness."  
  
"And he craves an audience with me?"  
  
"He has said it, Your Highness."  
  
"The gods." Ryuu-ou waved her maids and secretary from the room, the gate-guard hovering at the door as she paced rapidly from one side of the room to the other, kicking obstacles out of her way as she went. "Has Ashura-ou been informed?"  
  
"Not by myself, Your Highness. I came directly to you." The guard looked as though he would dearly love to be anywhere else.  
  
Ryuu-ou stopped in her tracks, her mind racing something less than coolly. "Subaltern, find Ashura-ou and ask him to meet me in the eastern antechamber of the audience hall. Then go to the gates and escort Raijin Taishakuten to the western antechamber. Make certain that he is treated with all courtesy and suitably refreshed from his journey. I will receive his petition directly."  
  
The guard saluted sharply and disappeared at a semi-dignified trot in the direction of Ashura's quarters.  
  
I somehow knew, Ryuu-ou thought as she stripped off her presentational clothing and reached for her armor, that today was not going to be my day.  
  
  
  
"Taishakuten is here?"  
  
It somehow soothed Ryuu-ou's temper to hear those self-same words from Ashura-ou himself A part of her had suspected that he might not react in such a way to that news, might simply smile his most inscrutable smile at her, and make her want to throttle him for failing to mention it days before. "My words."  
  
"Do you know why he has come?" Ashura's tone was low and taut, his golden eyes nearly over-bright, and Ryuu-ou wondered, not for the first time, what he was thinking.  
  
"He has requested an audience with me," Ryuu-ou informed him as soothingly as she could. "I will find out then. He did not come with half his army to dance attendance, however. One servant, I am given to understand, and a few pack animals, but otherwise alone and unattended."  
  
"I think he only has one servant," Ashura-ou observed wryly.  
  
"Knowing the Raijin that is probably the truth. I can send him away, if you wish it." She gripped his hands tightly and looked earnestly into his eyes. "I do not want you to be uncomfortable here, and if his presence would make you so-"  
  
"It would be a great injustice, Nagaina, if you sent him away unheard." He raised her hands to his lips. "The Raijin does not make me uncomfortable, my sister."  
  
"I will hear his petition, then." She opened the door, peered both ways down the corridor outside, and drew him out after her. "If you wish to watch, hide yourself behind the screens near my throne. It may be interesting for both of us to know what the Raijin seeks, from his own words." 


	6. And To See Him Smile Chapter 6

And To See Him Smile  
  
Part VI  
  
A RG Veda Story  
  
By Myranda Kalis  
  
  
  
Ashura-ou's head spun slightly as he took his place behind the closely woven screens flanking the elaborately carved Dragon Throne of Naga- jou, and he sternly told it to settle down. It refused, a cascade of images showering across his field of vision, every nerve coming, burning, back to life. For an instant, he felt again Taishakuten's hands cradling his own, a grip capable of crushing bone with frightening ease turned to the gentlest of purposes. A more soothing caress he had never known-more soothing, or more intense, for he had barely resisted the urge to give them both to the release his instincts had been howling for. But Taishakuten, he knew, had not meant to stir such a violent response in him, had meant only to offer a measure of comfort, and so the measure of comfort was all that he had taken. Here, now, he was not so certain of himself, could not rely on the well or poorly timed interruptions of the Emperor's whims, and his hands worked slowly into fists at his sides, hidden in the trailing sleeves of his tunic.  
  
He was alone behind the screens, and for that he was grateful, for he was not entirely certain he could keep his thoughts from his face, or even wished to. Normally, an elder or two of the clan could be counted on to lurk here during such events as audiences, for, while the Ryuu Clan generally disdained the politicking inherent in some other Clans, it never hurt to have the news fresh and hot to spread about. This morning, however, he knew that all the Clan elders were gathered in the council chamber, awaiting Nagaina's arrival for the dispensation of pressing business within the Clan itself, and none of them would be the first to excuse himself to satisfy idle curiosity. The audience hall itself was empty but for the ceremonial guards in the dragonscale armor of the Ryuu Clan, swords sheathed, halberds at guard position, awaiting the arrival of their sovereign. She was announced in due course, emerging from a recessed doorway and repairing to the throne itself, carved to resemble an enormous sea dragon rearing from the waves, draped in creamy panels of blue and green silk. Her eyes, dark and worried, sought his own; he met them with as much reassurance as he felt himself capable of giving. Her jaw set, and she settled back into the throne, signaling the guards flanking the door.  
  
"The Raijin Taishakuten."  
  
  
  
Ryuu-ou had kept him waiting a substantially shorter time than the Emperor had, and that endeared her to him quite completely. She also had not expected him to entertain anyone else while waiting, having him escorted to a small antechamber off the main audience hall, where he had been offered food and drink, water and a cloth to clean off the dust of the road, and a dozen other amenities, many by young women with the striking aquamarine eyes that characterized the Clan, who were too well bred to be servants. A dry smile curled his face. It was true, as Ryuu-ou had bemoaned once during their campaign together-everyone in Naga-jou was crazed with romance, at the very least, and in all likelihood, marriage as well.  
  
It was, he realized, infinitely easier to concentrate on trivialities than rehearse what he was going to say to Ryuu-ou when they met again. It was also easier to concentrate on the minutiae of Western court life than to imagine the thousand and one possibilities of what might happen if Ashura-ou was standing by her side when he entered. It took a full five breaths to convince his stomach to unknot, and another five to convince his hands to do the same. Nothing. Nothing would happen. If Ashura-ou were there, as he might be given the close relationship he enjoyed with Ryuu-ou, he would greet him cordially, as one did with one of higher rank. Nothing less and nothing more. No comments. No familiarity. And certainly no challenges. Simple greetings. They were, after all, both guests here, and he had a strong feeling that Ryuu-ou would not be amused at any disturbances of the peace in her house.  
  
A perfunctory knock sounded, and the door to the antechamber opened. A young man dressed in the dragonscale armor of the clan entered and bowed deeply to him. "Raijin Taishakuten, Ryuu-ou is prepared to receive you. If you will follow me?"  
  
Taishakuten nodded cordially enough and rose. The youngster rose from his bow as well, and Taishakuten was completely unprepared for what he read on his face: hero-worship, pure and unadulterated, and for an instant, all he could do was stand and stare at the retreating dragonscaled back. A foolish smile came and went on his face as he stretched his legs to follow, a little voice whispering in the back of his mind, Full circle, Raijin. Some things never end, they only continue. How old had he been, the first time he had seen Ashura-ou? Almost the same age as this young soldier, he thought, though it was sometimes difficult to recall clearly- his newer memories had nearly eclipsed the old, the original infatuation receding before something stronger. The strongest emotion that he had ever felt, the fiercest need. He clamped down on that thought and held it tightly as the carved doors of the audience chamber came into view, the young soldier opening them and announcing him into the presence of Ryuu-ou.  
  
  
  
Every nerve in Ryuu-ou's body jumped at the sound of Taishakuten's name, and it was all she could do to remain calmly in her seat, her hands resting confidently against the carved arms of her throne, appearing, to all the world, as though she had not a worry. Taishakuten approached slowly, with an uncharacteristic bit of stiffness in his stride. He wore the garments of a traveler rather than a general of a powerful army, though in the same cloud-grey and silver shades he favored in his armor, silver- blonde hair captured back in a loose tail, and the dust of the road edging his cloak and boots. There was a trace of strain around the silver eyes and the full mouth that hadn't been there, even in the worst, the blackest parts of the war, when it had been an uphill struggle to even convince themselves that they could win. When he bowed, the gesture was deep and low, genuine in its respect though by no stretch of the imagination a signal of submission, or inferiority. It was, Ryuu-ou thought, a wry smile playing across her lips, a far more acceptable gesture than the one he had given to the Emperor himself, weeks before. But then, she was forced to admit to herself, the Raijin had always respected strength most of all.  
  
"Rise." A dry smile parted her lips. "I see that you are well, Raijin, and welcome within my kingdom as well. What brings you to me?"  
  
Taishakuten straightened to his full height, and, despite the slightly raised dais on which her throne sat, he had the advantage. "Ryuu- ou, I am pleased to find you well." His tone was pleasant, even earnest, and Ryuu-ou had to consciously struggle not to be disarmed by it. She flicked a glance at the screens flanking her, and caught a glimpse of white- on-gold as Ashura-ou shifted slightly. "I have come to beg a boon of you- two of them, actually."  
  
"A boon?" Ryuu-ou kept her eyes from widening, but only just.  
  
Taishakuten nodded gravely. "As you have no doubt been informed, I came here with a companion."  
  
"Yes-an older man who, I am told, insisted that he help care for your baggage and animals before he would suffer himself to be refreshed." Ryuu- ou settled back in her chair, sensing a story, fingers lacing together as she listened.  
  
A grimace. "He was the servant of the Raijin who preceded me, and, when I assumed the office-well, let us say he came with the job. He is also, as you have observed, of rather advanced years.and, I fear, his health is beginning to fail him. I have been advised by the head of my army's healers that the climate in the West is the best possible for the treatment of the ailments he suffers. I would ask that he be allowed a place here at Naga-jou, where he will be able to remain both useful and comfortable-useful, because he wishes it, and comfortable, because I wish it for him. He has served me well in the time that we have been together."  
  
Ryuu-ou's eyes did widen, and she leaned forward in her seat, frankly surprised. "You-I believe that such a boon is easily granted. I will speak with the head of my servants about where he might be most.useful." It was all she could do not to stare through the screens in an effort to see Ashura-ou's reaction. "But, you said you had two requests."  
  
A slight smile curved Taishakuten's lips. "Indeed. I would also make the same request for myself."  
  
Ryuu-ou tried not to appear as thunderstruck as she felt, despite the sudden feeling she enjoyed of the world tilting ever-so-slightly beneath her feet. She caught a flash of gold-on-white out of the corner of her eye, Ashura signaling frantically from behind the screens, and it was only then that she fully appreciated how long she had sat, staring dumbstruck at Taishakuten. "I.must, of course, discuss this with the clan council, for this is a decision that will require the opinions and consent of the elders. You are fortunate, Raijin, inasmuch as the council is meeting this morning, and I may discuss it with them immediately." She paused, cudgeling her brain for a graceful, courtly means of beating a hasty retreat. "Until then, you are, of course, my honored guest. I will have quarters assigned to you, and an escort to show the grounds to you."  
  
Taishakuten, despite the gleam in his eyes, refrained from commenting on her visible fluster and bowed deeply. Ryuu-ou rose, signaled the guards at the door forward to attend Taishakuten, and swept as regally as possible from the room. It was, she reflected with some aggravation, going to be a highly unamusing council.  
  
  
  
Dinner that evening was, to say the very least, a unique affair. Ryuu-ou's Aunt Lakshimi, who had been envisioning a small function consisting entirely of a few carefully selected members of the immediate family and honored guests, had her carefully contrived plan to envelop her reticent neice in a web of romance from which there was no escape completely derailed. The council had consumed all of the morning, all of the afternoon, and had threatened to stretch into the evening before a recess was finally called to allow the elders and their ruler to refresh themselves. By the time this occurred, Ryuu-ou had almost forgotten Duryea's presence, and was in no mood to be greeted at the door to her quarters by a battalion of maids, all of which wanted to help her select her dress, coif her hair, and apply her cosmetics.  
  
Ryuu-ou had roared.  
  
The maids had fled.  
  
And the quasi-romantic candlelight meal for six had metamorphosed into a romantic candlelight dinner for three hundred, with the most carefully arranged seating that Lakshimi could manage given the circumstances. Ryuu-ou suffered herself to sit next to the hapless would- be suitor, who, led to expect a slightly smaller gathering, had nobly risen to the occasion and conversed pleasantly with everyone near him. This, thankfully, spared Ryuu-ou the necessity of making idle chit-chat, and allowed her to perform the slightly more vital task of watching Taishakuten like a hawk. The Raijin was seated directly across from her, in a place of honor next to her father, with whom he was enjoying a rather animated conversation, the particulars of which she couldn't overhear thanks to the ambient sound level in the feasting hall. Ashura-ou was on her right, paying quiet and concentrated attention to his meal, speaking pleasantly and wittily when addressed, but otherwise keeping his own counsel. This annoyed her vastly, since she dearly wished to talk to him, but had no idea where to start-and some instinctive part of her knew that he wouldn't, ever, volunteer the information that she wanted. He had vanished from his hiding place behind the screens in the audience hall before she had a chance to pounce on him, and had not had an opportunity all day in which to pull him aside for a quick word between council sessions. There was, however, something about him tonight that set all of her intuition on its finest edge, a look in his eyes that reminded her of the day Taishakuten had challenged him. It filled her with a wordless unease, a tension that had no resolution, for Taishakuten himself was nothing less than the essence of cordiality and respect all night, inquiring after Ashura-ou's health, engaging in idle banter, playing the role of the warrior-courtier with great skill.  
  
"Ryuu-ou," Aunt Lakshimi's voice, from across the table, drew her from contemplation of Taishakuten-which everyone else at the table had noted as well. "It grows late, and the moon will be rising soon-why don't you take Lord Duryea on a tour of the grounds?"  
  
Lakshimi was, of course, far too well-bred to simply stand up and scream, "Stop staring at the wrong man!" Ryuu-ou felt a bit of color coming into her cheeks but managed to restrain a full-blown blush as she turned to the expectantly waiting Lord Duryea. There was something dreadfully earnest about his face, a generally pleasant and well-scrubbed face, framed in a mass of sandy-blonde curls and graced with eyes a pleasant shade of blue. Inoffensive at the very least. From somewhere in the depths of her being allocated to suitor entertainment, Ryuu-ou managed to dredge up a smile and gestured for him to walk with her.  
  
  
  
Ashura-ou watched Nagaina depart out of the corner of his eyes, and drained the last sip from his cup. A servant was instantly there to refill it, but he waved her away and addressed his attention to Ryuu-ou's father. "Your pardon, my lord..I thank you again for your gracious hospitality, but I fear I must retire."  
  
The elder Ryuu disengaged himself from the imminently fascinating conversation he was having with the young Raijin just long enough to nod his understanding of Ashura-ou's desire, then plunged back in again. Ashura let a small smile play about his lips at the glance Taishakuten threw at him; the former Ryuu-ou was an old soldier, first and foremost, and had more war stories than any other Bushinshou in the Heavenly Realm. Some of them were even true. And all of them became new again when a visitor came to Naga-jou and sat still long enough for him to get started on them. Fortunately for all concerned, the Ryuu Clan's physician was a firm believer in the healing properties of sleep, and would shortly arrive to put the former head of the Clan down for his evening nap, simultaneously winning the rather glazed-looking Raijin a reprieve. He rose, bowed respectfully to the assembled nobles, and glided from the room, feeling Taishakuten's eyes on his back until he turned the corner into the hall. A brief word with one of the servants loitering outside his own quarters determined which of the many guest chambers Taishakuten was occupying during his stay. As fate would have it, their rooms were virtually adjoined, and shared windows and a door on the open gallery that overlooked the sea. He stepped out onto the gallery, and was greeted with a blast of cool wind scented with the hint of rain. The day had been beautifully sunny and mild, but as the sun had set, clouds had begun rolling in- obscuring, he noted with some amusement, the moon that Lakshimi had remembered. A thin line of brilliant crimson lingered in the West as the sun dropped below the curve of the world, briefly touching the clouds and staining the waters the color of blood.  
  
"You have come a long way to speak with me again, Raijin."  
  
  
  
Taishakuten stopped where he stood, half-startled that Ashura-ou had heard the soft sounds of his approach. He smoothed that emotion over as quickly as he could, sketching a courtesy, and continued less stealthily. Ashura-ou did not turn from his contemplation of the scene before them, the gold-bordered sleeves of his white tunic stirring slightly in the stiffening breeze as Taishakuten came to his side. His hands rested on the carved balustrade, and Taishakuten's lips curved softly as he laid his own next to them, their shoulders brushing as they stood for a long moment in companionable silence. Ashura-ou's lashes were half-lowered over his eyes, his mouth set in an expression that was not quite a smile.  
  
"Have you ever stood and watched the waves, Taishakuten?" His voice was low, controlled, a far cry from the strange, edged tone of their night in the garden-but, for some reason, far more disturbing. Taishakuten fought down a shudder, and opened his mouth to answer, but Ashura-ou was not yet finished. "The ocean is never still-a thing of constant change. No wave is ever the same as any other, and the sands are washed clean nearly as soon as something is written upon them."  
  
"The sky is much the same." Ashura-ou's eyes slid sideways and found his own, Taishakuten drawing a soft breath before he relinquished himself to that compelling gaze. "Have you ever laid on your back in the middle of a field, and watched the clouds pass by overhead, searching them for familiar shapes and patterns? And the sky at night-the shapes written in the stars are the same."  
  
"The shapes written in the stars." It emerged as a whisper. "Sometimes they change of their own accord.and sometimes nothing can move them. There is a star that never sets.around which all other stars circle, after all. The sea does not know that constraint. It grinds against the land, and wears the mightiest cliffs to powder in time. The stars.are trapped."  
  
"Trapped.." The word resonated deeply within Taishakuten, and in its wake, silence reigned. Trapped. Ashura-ou turned away again, and Taishakuten forced himself not to take the action a very loud voice within him was demanding. Instead, he whispered, "Are you trapped, Ashura-ou?"  
  
The answer was long in coming. "I should lie to you, Raijin. Yes."  
  
"By what?"  
  
"By who and what I am." Endless bitterness in those words. "I.need.."  
  
"What?" As gently as he could, he reached out and rested a hand on Ashura-ou's shoulder, half-turning him. Hoping he did not look half as mystified as he felt. The small voice that sometimes offered him the best advice informed him that he would always feel like he had stepped into the middle of a conversation with this man.  
  
Ashura-ou was completely still for several moments, gazing silently at him, and, for an instant, Taishakuten had the feeling that he was not truly being seen, either. His face was still, as still as any carven statue, eyes gleaming in the darkness with a light he could not see through. Slowly, almost as though he were unaware of it, or unwilling, his pale hand lifted, the sleeve falling back from his slender wrist.  
  
Taishakuten's skin was far softer than he had ever expected it to be, like velvet laid over fine bones and powerful muscles, the curve of his cheek fitting the angles of his palm in a way he had not imagined. Had not allowed himself to imagine. Tendrils of silver hair caressed his fingertips and, as he watched, the brilliant storm-lit eyes widened slightly, a tremor of fierce emotion passing through them. Do not do this, a little voice whispered in the back of his mind, but it was a small voice and easy to ignore. Taishakuten tilted his face, the motion caressing them both, lips pressing a soft, gentle kiss against the palm of his hand. Ashura caught his breath, the sensation sending a shock of pleasure up his arm, nerves burning as he dug his hand into Taishakuten's extravagant spill of hair, winding strands around his fingers and drawing their lips together. Taishakuten's lips trembled against his own, a reaction comprised of equal parts shock and passion, and then the shock was wiped away completely. It was not the struggle that Ashura had been half- expecting, and while the Raijin did not surrender, he did not attack, either, and their lips caressed one another, breath mingling, parting almost as one. Taishakuten tasted of rich wine and the sweetest honey, velvety soft and meltingly warm. Strong arms encircled him, as his own found their grip, fingers digging gently into Taishakuten's silk-covered shoulders, feeling the tension bleed from him as their kiss went on and on. When they finally parted, they simply stood together for a long moment, breast to breast, hip to hip, his cheek pressed to Taishakuten's shoulder, Taishakuten's face buried in his hair. Taishakuten's heartbeat, beneath his ear, was quick, as was his breathing, and Ashura inhaled deeply the scent of his flesh, musk mingled with fresh spring wind, winding his fingers through the silver hair and drawing them through, undoing the ties that held it mostly restrained. Taishakuten's arms tightened still further, squeezing the last fraction of space from between their bodies, soft, swift breaths stirring his hair, teasing the skin of his cheek and ear.  
  
"Ashura," Taishakuten breathed, an unusual, almost pleading tone to his voice, "please tell me that you are not going to disappear now."  
  
Ashura laughed huskily, placing a soft kiss in the hollow of Taishakuten's throat. "No, Taishakuten.I am not going to vanish now."  
  
Their second kiss was as sweet as the first, but fiercer, a fire coming into it now, a passion that the first had been too impulsive, too tenative to truly express. Taishakuten's hands were a liquid caress that seemed to cover every inch of his body that they could reach, rousing his senses in a way no other lover ever had, and he surrendered to it with no resistance, and no will to resist. His own hands and lips sought to return the attention, stroking the length of the spine, raking lightly across the sensitive small of his back, the taut curves of muscle, taking a long moment to admire their motion beneath his supple skin. Beneath his clothing, the Raijin was truly a work of art, and Ashura's fingers tangled with the ties and laces of his clothing, even as the same thought occurred in Taishakuten, and they laughed as skin was bared for hungrier attention. Taishakuten's hungrily questing mouth found the most sensitive places on his neck, nuzzled at his earlobes as he bit a light path across the Raijin's fine collarbones, eliciting a gasp and a tighter grip that ground their hips together, making their mutual arousal blindingly clear. Ashura's hand slipped down and found what it sought, a tremor running through Taishakuten's body at the intimacy of that caress, silver and golden eyes sliding together, both hazed with passion.  
  
"I want you," The words were past Ashura's lips and he had no desire to call them back.  
  
"Here?" Taishakuten's voice was rough as Ashura's hand continued its maddeningly thorough exploration of his manhood, taking complete advantage of the texture of his clothing to heighten the sensation.  
  
"Inside," Ashura breathed against his mouth, capturing it again in an unhurried kiss. He stepped back as far as the strong circle of Taishakuten's arms would allow, regretfully relinquishing his hold and sliding his hands back to grip the Raijin's wrists, and draw him with across the gallery, past the opened door of his chamber.  
  
A single lamp burned behind an amber shield of glass, enough light to see by and little more. Taishakuten tilted his hands to capture Ashura's own, as he guided them both into the middle of the chamber, strewn, after the habit of the West, with thick sleeping rugs and cushions and pillows, all in a riot of dark jewel colors. Ashura's fingers found the half-undone laces of his shirt and soon that garment was on the floor, and Ashura's closely following it, both seeking the soft comfort of the nest of rugs and pillows that comprised the bed, hands and lips questing, seeking, evoking soft moans and even softer cries of pleasure, and need. Ashura's body was lighter and leaner than Taishakuten's own, and he was surprised by the strength of it; it was a catlike power, corded muscle beneath milk white skin, and Taishakuten was fooled by it more than once as the twining of their bodies grew more ardent. The last barrier of fabric was removed and tossed casually aside, thighs parting further, hands stroking over flesh so sensitized the pleasure had nearly become pain. Ashura's night-dark hair fell over his face as he wrung another kiss from Taishakuten's lips, Taishakuten's powerful hands digging into the taut muscles of his lower back and buttocks.  
  
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh.." The sound was dragged from him, an involuntary cry as his engorged manhood was crushed against Taishakuten's own, the sound repeating itself in Taishakuten's own voice a fraction later.  
  
"Ashura.." A moan. "I must..I need.."  
  
"I need.as well.." He pressed his face into Taishakuten's sweat- slicked chest, feeling the heartbeat thundering now, even as Taishakuten's hand slipped beneath his chin and tilted his face up.  
  
"You need.me..?" There was such intense vulnerability in those silver eyes, a glimpse at the wounded heart that lay beneath all of Taishakuten's arrogance, that Ashura nearly wept.  
  
"I need you." It was not a lie, and he forced the clarity of that realization into his eyes, and allowed it to pass between them. The smile that crossed Taishakuten's face was a transfiguration, and the embrace that enfolded him was a blessing. The body beneath his yielded, just a fraction. Then take what you need. A sob lodged somewhere in Ashura's throat as they moved together, surrender and surrender, give and give, until his body was sheathed within and against Taishakuten's own, a full- body embrace, a whole-being caress. It was beyond words, nearly beyond sensation, a joining of an intensity that neither before had experienced, and neither wished to end, despite its gentleness in the beginning and the fierce, hungry pace that it developed. Passion and pleasure had never known its true definition for either of them before that moment, and, for a time, locked in the single reality of their union, they knew it would never again have any meaning in the arms of another. 


	7. And To See Him Smile Chapter 7

And To See Him Smile  
  
Part VII  
  
A RG Veda Story  
  
By  
  
Myranda Kalis  
  
  
  
"You seem distracted, Ryuu-ou."  
  
Lord Duryea's soft, pleasant, well-modulated voice brought Ryuu-ou from her thoughts, all of which were dire contemplations of the vagaries of cruel chance. If the universe were a fair place, she knew, she would be in the banquet hall now, mostly emptied by the lateness of the hour and the usual evening activities that were relegated to the smaller side chambers and private quarters of Naga-jou's inhabitants. She would be, subtly as she could, drilling the Raijin Taishakuten for every scrap of information she could get out of him-the true reason for his coming, what was going on inside his inscrutably male head. She would be merciless, yet cunning, her verbal traps wrought with art enough to make even Ashura-ou weep in appreciation at the sight of her strategy. She would reduce him to the truth, once and for all.  
  
The universe was not, however, a fair place for gods or men, and she was not in the main hall grilling the unfathomable Lord of Thunders. She was attempting in her fashion to entertain one of the endless horde of suitors brought to Naga-jou by her marriage-happy relatives in an effort to force her into the bonds of respectable matrimony. In the artfully lit and arranged gardens, which, in the glow of dozens of elegantly placed lamps of cut glass and colored paper, had the unmistakable ambiance of romance. Ryuu-ou ground her teeth.  
  
"Affairs of state weigh heavily on me even in the off-season, my Lord," she managed, politely enough. "I'm afraid I never inherited the knack of letting politics roll off my back."  
  
"Your affairs have been so unsettled, then, of late?" He inquired, equally polite, golden lamplight glinting in his blue-blue eyes and sandy blonde hair. He really was, Ryuu-ou thought distractedly, not at all ill- favored.  
  
"I have been unsettled in my affairs, rather than the other way around." She laughed lightly. "It seems I cannot turn around without something new happening to distract me from what I was just doing."  
  
His eyes rolled heavenward. "Oh, believe me, I can understand that. My father is always finding something new for me to do-usually before I have finished the first thing he set me to do-"  
  
"And it's never anything small that you can delegate to someone else- "  
  
"And it always takes much more time than there are hours in the day-"  
  
"And if it is not one thing it is the other-"  
  
"My parents' most recent project is attempting to convince me to marry." His eyes sought the sky again; Ryuu-ou almost choked on her tongue. "I am not even the Heir! I think they just want more grandchildren."  
  
Ryuu-ou managed to dislodge the object cutting off her air and croaked out, "Truly? My family-"  
  
"I know." Duryea smiled wryly-his smile, Ryuu-ou noted, did not ruin his face at all, but rather brought it to life, crinkling the skin around his eyes and mouth, already marked with laugh lines and other signs of his good humor. "I had wondered when we would arrive at this point. My Lady, I've no wish to be another unwanted suitor to plague your peace-I came to Naga-jou primarily to placate my mother and your aunt. This walk has been.pleasant.but it need go no further if you are not of a mind to humor your relatives. I am certainly not of a mind to humor mine."  
  
A smile twitched at the corners of Ryuu-ou's mouth. She slipped her arm through his. "I think, my Lord, that we have more in common than is usual for me and my suitors."  
  
Overhead, the sky flashed as lightning leapt from cloud to cloud. Ryuu-ou's sea-green eyes narrowed as she glared at the offending heavens, and Duryea laughed helplessly. "Perhaps we should continue this inside.Humoring our obnoxious relations, that is?"  
  
"Of course, my Lord. Let us, by all means, repair indoors and humor them until they are quite certain we are betrothed."  
  
  
  
The portico that ringed the guest quarters was wide enough for them to walk comfortably close or as far apart as liked, and had the additional advantages of a solid roof and the opportunity for the countless spies no doubt set to watch them to get an eyeful. ("You are absolutely awful, Lord Duryea." "Years of practice, Ryuu-ou.") Bearing all this in mind, they sprinted for it as the rain began to pound down in earnest, and managed nevertheless to be thoroughly drenched.  
  
Ryuu-ou ran her fingers through her short-cropped red hair and wrung some of the excess water from it, flicking it at the grinning Lord Duryea, attempting the same task with his dripping cloak. "That certainly came up quickly."  
  
"The disadvantage, perhaps, of having the God of Thunder beneath your roof," Duryea suggested impishly, and she smacked him.  
  
"Bite your tongue-and do not give him any ideas!" Water flung back and forth between them for a few minutes until they were entirely convulsed in mirth. "For all I know, he is part of some insanely elaborate plot designed to work us into a compromising situation from which marriage is the only escape.."  
  
"I take it, then, you were not expecting us to arrive on the same day?" Duryea asked wryly.  
  
"Not at all," Ryuu-ou admitted, caught half-way between amusement and irritation. "He did not even send a messenger to precede him. He simply turned up."  
  
"From the rumors I have heard, he seems to have a talent for turning up where he is least expected. Not another pre-scheduled suitor, then."  
  
Ryuu-ou snorted. "Not a suitor at all! He came seeking a place in my Court-"  
  
"The West is famous for its hospitality."  
  
Ryuu-ou paused and scrutinized him for a moment, then continued on. "Indeed, the Court of Naga-jou is known for its hospitality-but I've a feeling he hadn't thought two thoughts about coming here before.."  
  
"Before?" Lord Duryea prompted after a moment of silence, in which Ryuu-ou's eyes narrowed dangerously and she began chewing thoughtfully upon her lower lip.  
  
"You are, of course, aware that the Raijin was honored before the Heavenly Court for his conduct of the war." Another, lengthier pause. "He asked, as his reward, a fencing lesson from Ashura-ou."  
  
Duryea made a soft sound that was almost approving. "Bold. And, of course, quite arrogant-he's said not to lack, though he was cordial enough tonight."  
  
"He does not lack at all, though he can wear as fine a courtly face as any when it comes to that." She ran a hand through her drying hair and began pacing down the portico, Duryea shortening his stride to keep pace with hers. "What I was going to say, Lord Duryea, is that I do not believe he strung two thoughts about coming here together before he learned that Ashura-ou was taking his leisure here away from the Heavenly Court.."  
  
"You think he carries.what? A grudge?" Duryea looked puzzled a moment. "Was there anything between them before the Raijin's return to Zenmi-jou?"  
  
"If they ever met before, I have not been aware of it. You know how rare it is for Ashura-ou to actually leave Zenmi-jou for any reason, and Taishakuten rarely favors the Heavenly City with his presence, despite his rank in the armies." A wry smile that faded quickly. "I do not know what the Raijin wants, but I do believe that it is more than what he told me. I wish I knew more."  
  
"Perhaps you should ask Ashura-ou? Have you confided your fears in him?"  
  
"No," she said slowly. "No, I have not. Yet, at any rate. He and I are much in each others' confidence, but I am half-afraid that he will laugh at me over this-I do not think he believes the Raijin is dangerous to him." A long, mulling silence. "Let us go to him now."  
  
Duryea blinked. "Now? The hour is late-"  
  
Another snort. "Ashura is a night-owl, my friend. I do not even know if he actually sleeps any longer! He is almost certainly still awake and taking his evening reading in his chambers. Besides," a sly grin, "I think you would like one another, given time, and he would almost certainly aid and abet us in whatever prank we choose to pull on Aunt Lakshimi tomorrow morning."  
  
He chuckled. "A trickster God of War?"  
  
"He has a spark of well-hidden mischief in him-he will deny it vigorously if confronted about it, of course, but it is true." She smiled. "Here is his door.."  
  
Ryuu-ou reached for the doorknob; Duryea's hand found her wrist before she could even touch it.  
  
"Wait!" He breathed at her surprised look. "Listen. Do you hear..?"  
  
Soft sounds emerged from behind the barrier of the thin door and walls. Ryuu-ou and Duryea both listened intensely, their eyes widening, and Ryuu-ou at least paling several degrees. Her horrified gaze found his, and they both moved at once, crouching low and crawling on their hands and knees to peer through the window, slightly ajar, through which a lance of pale golden light was falling.  
  
Ryuu-ou's mouth fell agape in pure shock and horror. Duryea could only stare in sheer astonishment. They watched for several moments while the initial mental paralysis wore off. Duryea recovered first, gripping Ryuu-ou's shoulder tightly and giving her a gentle shake. She came out of her trance with a soft squeak of dismay and incredulity, the look in her sea-colored eyes frankly stunned as she turned to look at him. He nudged her over, and, in the enormity of her trauma, she did as he suggested, crawling further down the portico before pushing back to her feet and leaning, at a loss, against the wall.  
  
"Well," Duryea observed dryly, "you have your answer about what the Raijin wants here.."  
  
Ryuu-ou's mouth moved soundlessly for several seconds, before managing to blurt out, "They were--!"  
  
"Yes, they certainly were." Duryea confirmed, a sort of admiration creeping into his tone. "And they both looked like they were enjoying themselves mightily."  
  
"Ashura and Taishakuten!" Ryuu-ou squeaked through an unusually tight throat.  
  
"Yes," Duryea replied agreeably.  
  
"I need a drink. A strong drink."  
  
"Shall we find one, milady?"  
  
"By all means, Lord Duryea-let's." 


End file.
